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Bucha, Aug. 11 (AP) Graves marked only with numbers, not names, buried
Eleven other unidentified bodies were found Thursday in Bucha, a small town outside Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, where hundreds were massacred under Russian occupation early in the war.
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Under harsh grey skies, the two women and eight men were buried in a mass grave near the town’s Church of the Apostle Andrew following the withdrawal of Russian troops in late March. The 11th victim was shot and found in the village of Chervony, 17 kilometers (10 miles) outside the Ukrainian capital. Another man who was shot but was identified was also buried in the same cemetery on Thursday.
The killing of civilians in Boucha has become a symbol of the brutality of the war. They followed Russia’s failed attempt to seize the Ukrainian capital following its February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
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The bodies were wrapped in plastic, transported to a refrigerated truck, placed in wooden coffins, and buried separately.
“We are praying for the souls of those who have been unjustly killed,” said Father Andre, an Orthodox priest who led Thursday’s service near the site where the mass grave was found. “God knows their names.”
It was the second such funeral of an unidentified body in Bucha, following the burial of 15 people on 9 August.
The municipality said 458 bodies were found in the Bucha area after 33 days of Russian occupation. These included the bodies of 12 children, in most cases killed with their parents.
Authorities said 116 bodies were found in a mass grave near the Church of the Apostle Andrew.
The identification process began in April at several mortuaries in the Kyiv region. The body was buried a month after the autopsy and remains unidentified if no relatives could be found to be officially named.
Oleksandr Khmaruk, 37, was initially listed as a number because his parents were initially unable to locate his body due to bureaucratic confusion. Hemaruk, who served in Ukraine’s armed forces in 2014-15, is believed to have been dragged from his home by Russian soldiers and shot dead at a checkpoint.
He was one of 458 dead in Butha after the Russian occupation and was found in the same mass grave as the 10 unnamed bodies buried on Thursday. His family buried him at the same cemetery on Thursday.
“We are dealing with a list of about 50 unidentified bodies,” said Mykhailyna Skoryk-Shkarivska, deputy mayor of Butha, adding, That number has changed as more family members are found.
“We hope the numbers will become names,” she said. (Associated Press)
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Follow all AP coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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