What begins as a simple stroll through the countryside eventually becomes a visit to a Dantesque setting. Apparently it’s just another forest of many surrounding Kyiv, but this one eventually became ground zero of Russian humiliation. After the invasion on February 24, the Kremlin troops not only failed to capture the Ukrainian capital, but also fell victim to a violent attack on the night of March 27. At 11 p.m., according to some neighbors, the local army destroyed from the air and with artillery part of the huge camp set up by the invader between the cities of Bucha and Borodianka.
The bombardment was so great that it destroyed everything within a radius of 200 or 300 meters. There is no data on how many Russian soldiers camped, but given the size of the territory they occupied stretching over many hectares, it could be thousands. Nobody among the residents of the area knows how many victims of Ukrainian projectiles or explosions created in the local arsenal burned to death. It seems the only thing the authorities took away is the bodies.
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Remains of civilization appear at the beginning of the path leading to the place. One might think they are memories of a group of campers with no conscience. A boot, a piece of plastic, a piece of clothing, leftover food… A few hundred meters further on, the scenery changes. Sundays couldn’t be that many or that dirty. Indeed, it is not an oasis of leisure. Several signs nailed to the wayside warn of possible mines.
Huge garage-sized caves dug into the ground appear. The ramps indicate that they were used to camouflage vehicles. Some of these holes, covered with tree trunks and branches, have become veritable underground huts. Some still have sleeping mats. Scattered are also shacks made out of branches and covered with tarps to ensure some privacy. They look like toilets. More clothes. More boots. Precarious clotheslines. Green wooden and metal boxes. They are ammunition. And the first derelict military truck appears between the pines. Seeing it, no one can imagine what nature hides from us.
Shelters dug into the forest by Russian troopsLuis de Vega
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No sign of human life. Yes of death. It appears unannounced when the remains of the huge settlement have spread over a kilometer to the right and left. Two crossed sticks sunk into the ground mark the spot next to a small burial mound. Another of the many graves seen far from cemeteries throughout this war. Here I catch you, here I kill you, here I bury you.
empty pits
“It’s from a Russian soldier,” agrees Slava, the neighbor who acts as guide. There are also six empty tombs along with the remains of crosses, also improvised. “They were Ukrainians and they dug them up,” he adds. For her there was a second, less undignified farewell. After a while, Slava warns that there is little left for the final fireworks. It fills him with a certain pride to be able to teach the proof of the debacle. As the one who prepares tourists in Notre-Dame Cathedral, he announces that the desired moment has come to look out over Paris from the heights between the gargoyles.
First a bizarre little dump. Washing machines, televisions and other gutted appliances. “These are remnants of what the Russians stole from houses and couldn’t take with them,” he says with a touch of hatred. His explanation coincides with that of other residents of villages under Russian occupation. They report constant looting by unassisted men in uniform, who sometimes even took clothes against the hibernation and food to prevent fainting.
Food came to this forest camp. Leftovers of individual rations with the logo of the Russian army are visible on the packaging. There is even a Friday, March 18 edition of Moscow’s Red Star newspaper. “Vladimir Putin: We will fight for the right to be and remain Russia” is the main headline on the cover, along with a photo of the President. Other articles announced on this front page speak of “Goebbels”-style Western forgeries or the “historical roots of Ukrainian Nazism.”
calcined dough
A huge circle appears in front of us, obliterated by the intensity of the attack. A clearing amidst the army of logs being consumed by the flames. Others were split down the middle or splintered almost artfully. A short walk there and the reporter’s suspicions at the promise of visiting something interesting evaporate in the middle of the set of a real war film.
March 18 edition of the Russian newspaper Red Star found in the forest bombed by the Ukrainian army on the 27th of this month. Luis de Vega
What remains are the charred masses of dozens of trucks and other vehicles. Some are a bunch of junk. Others look more recognizable but are covered in a grain pattern of bumps that allows light to filter through the sheet metal as if it were a sieve. Scattered on the ground are ammunition and projectiles of all calibers and conditions, documentation of weapons that were miraculously saved from burning, remains of uniforms, charred metal suitcases…
This environs of Bucha, Borodianka and other suburbs of Kyiv had been occupied, subdued and leveled by the Russians for a month. Faced with Putin’s failure in his attempt to invade the capital, they prepared to retreat in late March amid local counterattacks. But a bitter farewell awaited them. In the midst of the March 27 apocalypse, Slava recalls, “night turned into day.”
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