Bucha resident describes terrifying encounter with Russian troops

the trees began to bud on yablonska street not long after russian soldiers withdrew from bucha it means apple tree street in english but the horror that still hangs in the air makes even the approach of spring feel an affront to those who died on this street and all around it the images of their bodies left to rot for weeks were among the first to alert the world to the atrocities russian soldiers stand accused of when they occupied sleepy commuter towns around kiev they don't have an army maradere they have marauders rapists and killers who have weapons and cardboards to do what they want vladimir lizovsky took these videos stolen glimpses of an unfolding nightmare they tell the story of those who survived hiding in basements keeping to the shadows we met him in a kiev hospital recovering from surgery to repair a broken bone in his face lazovsky is a biker he owned a harley-davidson repair shop before it was destroyed in the fighting he and his extended family live on a cross street just three houses from yablunska he says the russian attacks on civilians intensified on march 18th not only on the streets they started to come into houses to do searches and we heard shootings inside other houses we knew that a lot of people stayed in butcher for different reasons the shootings were happening all around the city the back of lizovsky's house borders another one street over that was taken by the russians to live in and left like this they used to ask him for water from the family well he says then they demanded their mobile phones searching for names and next they came to steal jewelry the knock on the door on march 29th was the most dangerous of all this my mother and father were trying to stop them from taking me but russian said if my parents got in their way it would get worse they took him to a nearby house he says and beat him demanding he confessed to helping the ukrainian army when he refused they took him outside and walked him the short distance to jablunska street they brought me to a place where bodies of people who had been killed earlier were lying they made me kneel there they put gun to my head and fired it next to my ear one of the bodies still lying on the street that day belonged to vladimir purvchenko a man in his 60s killed by a sniper around march 5th according to neighbors his bike remained even after ukrainian troops had liberated bucha and removed his body someone had laid out his belongings too a memorial of sorts he was going to work on his bike says a family friend who prefers not to give his last name is a he worked in warzone at the orphanage we wanted to take him and bury him but as we came out to the intersection we saw russians and retreated right away after his refusal to confess lizovsky was beaten again before being subjected to a second mock execution he doesn't know why they didn't kill him i can't answer that i don't have any idea possibly because of my weight i didn't meet the barters or in the army so they thought i did not pose any danger his ordeal ended when two of his captors delivered him back home on the same day they gave me a cigarette and said i was being born again when my mother saw me she started to cry and said to the soldiers when you go back home tell your parents what you saw here one of the soldiers said i want because it's a shame three days later ukrainian troops entered bucha recording on body cameras what the russians had left behind by mid april ukrainian prosecutors had reported finding the bodies of 278 people and counting in bucha alone nearly all of them civilians many with their hands tied behind their backs they've appealed to the public to help gather evidence and just last week published photos of 10 russian soldiers accused of taking civilians hostage in bucha and torturing them all from the same brigade as those accused of tormenting vladimir lizovsky we will restore and renew our lives in butcher and we will find all of the people who committed these crimes lizovsky's physical scars are healing but he won't admit to psychological ones he's joined a territorial defense unit and there is clearly anger sketched across his being but not fear he says not in your own home ask him what he dreams about at night though and he declines the question margaret evans cbc news lucha

Channel: CBC News: The National

Views: 224,134

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Id: PHEZXDW8hDk

Length: 5min 50sec (350 seconds)

Published: Tue May 03 2022