Part of the city of Bucha is surrounded by a tall and dense pine forest. There is a large equipped park waiting for spring after the last snow in March.
Before February 24, 2022, the satellite town, an hour’s drive from Kiev, presented itself as an ideal destination for families and young couples looking for a comfortable lifestyle. A motto was also coined to describe the attractiveness of the place: “Bucha, living in comfort”. But today the city is struggling with its deepest wound, exactly one year after the liberation of what the world now knows as the scene of horror. And the Mayor of Bucha, Anatolii Fadoruk, explains to ANSA the complexity of this moment as if caught between indelible pain and a natural desire for the future.
“March 31, 2022 was probably the happiest day ever: not only for me, but also for the citizens of Bucha who stayed in the city during the occupation by Russian forces, when there were just over 3,000 people here,” says the mayor. “Those who survived torture and violence celebrated a year ago as if they were born again. Because the Russians knowingly killed and tortured civilians and spread fear: it was genocide. Of course, to forget and even more to forgive the Russians for what they did to my city, it is impossible. But at the same time, our goal is for justice to be done”. The mayor then reflects on the need to honor and preserve memory on the one hand, and the need to “write another page in the history of our city” on the other.
Looking back on those days, on the liberation, Fadoruk emphasizes that there are two recurring images in his mind: “These corpses, but also the deserted city. Especially the days after the 31st: I looked around and realized that there was no nobody anymore. That’s why it’s one of our jobs to bring people back.” Bringing people back to life in Bucha. “And that’s what we do: we fix the buildings so they can come back. Residents of all ages, young people as well as older people and families who want to grow up here.” The mayor calls it a “double feeling that you have to live with not only in Bucha, but throughout Ukraine. On the one hand war and everything that goes with it: loss, murder, torture, destruction. And on the other hand, the duty to survive and to do everything possible so that our towns and villages work for victory even in war”. Everyone is on his front line.
In the last 12 months, the mayor of Bucha has received many foreign delegations in the city: “Giorgia Meloni has also come – he emphasizes -, at first I saw in her the premier role in which she arrived, but after the short one Time She passed here, between the mass graves and the Church of Sant’Andrea, I saw the man and his feelings, who knows, if he had been a man it might not have been so visible, but for her it was very obvious : she was touched by this story”.
Speaking of reconstruction, “We must strive for the most solid economic recovery and modernization to counter imperialist ambitions, to ensure that these ambitions do not try to cross the border again,” the mayor noted. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I wish they didn’t imagine this war somewhere in Ukraine, but that it was a war in Eastern Europe. And when we Ukrainians, together with our international partners, if they are not stopped, they want to go to Rome, Milan, Lisbon…”. This is the message to Italy, with which Bucha “already is a partner”, says the mayor and reminds to the town twinning with Bergamo.”But we are ready to do more. But we don’t want to ‘ask’, we want to be partners, because an investment in Ukraine means an investment in your security.”
And in a year? What does it entail? “The second anniversary of the liberation,” Fadoruk replies. He then explains, “What I want is that the war on the second anniversary can be a memory and finally think about development, modernization, the future of our children, the needs of our elders.” In a word, normal.
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