Near her garden shed lies the body of a man lying face down with a bag over his head and his hands tied behind his back. His trousers are pulled down. There are large bruises on his left leg and a large wound on his head.
Next to his body is a single cartridge case.
“He was executed, shot in the head,” said a Ukrainian National Police officer. There are no documents on the man, but local authorities say all indications point to him being another civilian casualty of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war.
The body is one of many recently found in towns east of Kyiv occupied by Russian forces.
Borodianka was home to 13,000 people before the war, but most fled after the Russian invasion. What remained of the city after intense shelling and devastating air raids was then occupied by Russian forces, which entered on February 28th.
Yuriy Pomin was still in town when the Russian attack began.
“The scariest part was when their planes came. They flew over our house and threw bombs,” Pomin told CNN.
Today the 33-year-old is cleaning up his apartment on the fourth floor. The multi-story building next to him was leveled by a Russian strike, and he’s moving what’s left of his belongings to another house outside of town.
“I can’t stay here,” he said. “It’s not safe.”
Months of Russian occupation left devastating marks on the city.
Not only was it almost completely destroyed by long-range attacks – the buildings were reduced to rubble – but the Russian occupying forces used some of the houses as their own staff barracks.
Kostychenko and her husband Oleksand fled when the shelling began, only to return after the city returned to Ukrainian control on April 1.
While her home appeared untouched by the heavy shelling that destroyed Borodianka, the inside was ransacked. Clothing and discarded bottles lay on the floor. They found their favorite bird dead in its cage.
“Alcohol is everywhere, empty bottles in the hallway, under things,” says the 44-year-old. “They (the Russians) smoked a lot, put cigarettes on the table. They used the bedding as their own.”
Most of the furniture was either damaged or destroyed, as was the TV.
“They did everything they wanted,” Kostychenko said. “Our jewels have been taken. They are nothing but looters.”
Nearby shops were also looted, their windows broken and the contents either stolen or spilled on the ground.
The letter “V,” short for Vostok (meaning “East” in Russian) — and a symbol used by Russia’s Eastern Military District along with the letter “Z,” an emblem for Moscow’s so-called “military special operations” — – was painted on buildings, vehicles and checkpoints.
The local employment office and town hall were fortified and turned into a headquarters for the Russian troops stationed in the city. Both were also covered with V.
Borodianka was a starting point for Russian units advancing on Kyiv through suburbs such as Bucha and Irpin. They faced strong resistance from Ukrainian forces and were forced to retreat.
Remnants of destroyed Russian hardware in dozens of towns and cities around the capital, and foxholes and artillery positions were left almost untouched.
Authorities have imposed a curfew throughout the Kyiv region until April 7, urging residents to remain indoors during demining operations.
Moscow has denied targeting civilians, but volunteers are working with police to pick up the bodies of killed civilians, which are rotting in the open.
“We collect people who were shot by the Russians. civilians being tortured. We’ve been working for two days,” said Hennadiy Avramenko, 45.
CNN watched Avramenko and his colleague retrieve the body of a 44-year-old Ukrainian from a car. He was shot through the heart while driving, his car crashed into a ditch next to the road.
“Psychologically it is difficult,” said Avramenko. “The worst thing is that we don’t find any soldiers, only innocent people.
“They were shot for no reason,” he added.
Within an hour, the volunteers pick up two more bodies. One of them was the charred corpse of a person who was hit by an artillery shell, the other an elderly man who was shot while riding a bicycle.
“(Monday) we picked up seven people and (on Tuesday noon) we are already at six,” Avramenko said.
In and around Borodianka, authorities are just beginning to comb through the remains of most buildings, knowing they will continue to find bodies.
Despite the withdrawal of Putin’s army from their city, residents of Borodianka fear the destruction they are sowing will continue for months, if not years.