The incident is said to have happened at 7.15am on March 5 in Bucha, a city northwest of Kiev, when two families on Ivana Rudenka Street tried to escape from hell. It is, said Halina, a story that people want to hear. The two families, terrified by the constant bombardment and indiscriminate fire that marked the Russian invasion of Ukraine, decided to leave Bucha, a city of about 30,000 inhabitants, a few days earlier. Halyna Tovkach and her husband, Oleg, who was killed when the Russians shot their car. It was full of food and drink, a route to the village of Romanivka in western Ukraine was planned. They would travel by convoy. In the front car, a white Ford, was Oleksandr Chykmariov, 42, his wife Margarita, 33, and their two boys, Matvey, 8, and Klim, four. Behind them, in a white Dodge, was Oleg, his wife, Halyna, who was driving all the way as her husband was not licensed, and Tetiana Kovalenko, 50, mother of their son’s wife, Roman, 33. . The two families were nervous but determined. They were destined to never even reach the outskirts of the city. After turning on Chkalova Street, just 800 meters from their doorstep, a Russian armored vehicle, invisible to those in the second car, found the escort in sight, according to Halyna’s account to the Observer from the hospital bed. “The Chykmariov’s car stopped suddenly and so I stopped,” Halyna said. “I saw a door open in the front car and two feet fell out. A thought came to my head, I thought everyone was killed. It happened so fast, I do not know. My husband screamed, “come back, come back.” Then I felt something hitting my right shoulder, a bullet. I pushed my husband out of the car. But he was not moving. I realized he was dead. I just opened my door and ran. “ Tetiana, in the back seat, could not get out and had to break her window open with her feet to escape. In the front car, which was later engulfed in flames, only Oleksandr survived the attack. His wife and two boys were killed instantly by machine gun fire that hit the vehicle. Oleksandr got out of his wrecked vehicle hiding behind Halyna’s car. He reached the front seat of the Dodge after spotting a cell phone. “He called me,” Roman said. “Everyone is dead,” he said. “Your mother and father are dead.” Oleksandr, who has since lost a leg, was later arrested by a passing car. He was not ready to talk about his family’s death when the Observer approached him. Halyna Tovkach after hospital treatment for her bullet wound. Roman, who was out of work when Vladimir Putin started his war on February 24, says he will return to Bucha to find his father in a few days. Oleg’s body, locals say, remained in the car for five days. The Russians would not allow it to be removed. “I do not know where my father’s body is,” Roman said. “I have to find him.” His mother is still in hospital after being transported from a local facility in Chernobyl. “The doctors said it was an inch lower and I would be dead too,” Halina said. “I saw a V on the armored vehicle,” he added, referring to the letter, which, along with the Z, was painted on Russian vehicles operating in Ukraine. The restrained way in which Roman and his mother tell their terrible story denies the power of their determination to hear the accounts of such crimes. “I hope this interests you,” says Roman. “It’s a war crime.” The allegations could not be independently verified, although the Observer saw a photograph of Halyna’s wounds and echoes a gruesome list of similar stories that emerged as Russian troops were driven out of the suburbs of Kiev. On Saturday, the bodies of at least 20 men were found by Ukrainian forces on a single street in Bukha. One of them had his hands tied. Sixteen of the 20 bodies were either on the sidewalk or on the sidewalk, according to a report by AFP reporters who had been given access to the city by the army. Three were lying in the middle of the street and another was in the yard of a house, according to the narration. An open Ukrainian passport was lying on the ground next to the man who had his hands tied behind his back with a piece of white cloth. They are all said to have worn civilian clothes – winter coats, jackets or overalls, jeans or jogging pants and gyms or boots. Two of them were lying near bicycles while another was next to an abandoned car. Some are said to have been lying face down, with their limbs abnormally bent, while others were lying face down. The faces of the dead had taken on a pale waxy appearance, indicating that they might have been there for several days.
