Twenty bodies, all men in civilian clothes, some of whom appear to have been lying there for weeks, were photographed on April 2 by AFP, the first media to arrive in Boutcha, a Kyiv suburb, shortly after Russian troops left.
Twenty corpses scattered on the same street: Yablounska Street, in other words Street of Apple Trees.
The images will go around the world, sparking international excitement and marking a turning point in the Ukraine conflict in its sixth week.
Kyiv quickly accused Russian forces of committing “war crimes” during their occupation of the city in March.
On Thursday, the first 10 Russian soldiers were charged by the services of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General with “cruel treatment” and death threats against civilians in Boutcha. The prosecutor clarified that the investigation would continue to determine her possible involvement in “premeditated murders”.
Jablounska Street, a pre-war residential street, appears to have become hell for Boutcha residents in March. But what exactly was going on? Who are these downcast men? How and when did they die, who killed them? And, even trickier question, why?
Russian authorities, who accuse the Ukrainians of “manipulation,” deny responsibility for the deaths left behind after they occupied the city.
AFP spent several days interviewing victims’ relatives, those who collected or attempted to lift the bodies, and collected versions from police and judicial sources.
By comparing official casualty lists from the authorities and by looking at autopsy reports at the Boutcha morgue, AFP was able to identify these men and trace their journey down the “road of death.”
Here is the story of four of them.
Michka Romaniouk, the man with the bicycle
His body was found lying on his back, tangled in his bicycle, his face gray and already decomposed.
“We went together, I came back alone,” says Oleksandr Smagliouk, 21, with staring, blank blue eyes as he begins this morning, March 6th.
By 10.30am, Mykhaïlo, known as “Michka” Romaniouk, 58, had decided to try everything: 4km by bike to accompany Oleksandr, his niece’s boyfriend, to the military hospital in the neighboring town of Irpin.
The two men hoped to find a loved one there who had disappeared in a bombing raid, and perhaps power to charge their phones and ask for help.
You pedal, Michka in front, Oleksandr behind, and in a few minutes you will arrive at Jablounska Street. You only have 500m to the hospital.
“We drove pretty fast and there was nobody on the road,” says Oleksandr. “I first heard the sound, an explosion of shots. And Mykhaïlo fell in front of me. I fled through a small alley while pedaling.”
The shots, he claims, came from a two-story yellow house directly in front of them. “Snipers,” he said, referring to likely snipers.
“I didn’t get what was going on there,” the young man explains guiltily.
Unnoticed by residents, Yablounska Street, the main axis that led to the neighboring town of Irpin and made it possible to monitor everything entering and leaving Boutcha, had become the outpost of Russian infantry and commando units that had just captured the town.
From March 4, tank fire was stationed there, Russian soldiers occupied the houses and set up a command post in one of them. The street is theirs.
What was the instruction? “The first thing they did was position themselves and shoot anyone, anyone who came near with everything they had and anything that moved,” Boucha Police Chief Vitaly Lobass said .
Michka Romaniouk’s body remained for 28 days on that stretch of sidewalk painted yellow and white in front of the house where the shooting was said to have departed from. His bruised face was turned sideways in a pleading grimace, his hands in orange work gloves.
The body was collected on April 3 when the city was liberated and autopsied five days later.
Cause of Death: “Ballistic head trauma caused by impact of bullet (…) multiple brain damage and fracture of skullcap,” reads his death certificate consulted by AFP.
Conclusion: “Automatic weapon wound with intent to kill”.
The construction worker was filmed at the very beginning of the war, before Russian troops entered Boutcha, cooking on a stove for his entire small family.
“Day 5 of the war. Michka is on fire. Hello handsome!”, Viktoria Vatoura, 48, her sister-in-law, comments on the video and adds: “Saschka came back under shell fire, we have the meat, tonight is skewers.”
“A simple man who loved life and had never hurt anyone,” his sister-in-law told AFP. “He was a happy guy who liked to drink.”
Michka Romaniouk was buried on April 18 without a ceremony and without a priest. Each of the four family members said a little word at his grave in Boutcha Cemetery #2.
Mykhailo Kovalenko, hands up shot
The body of Mykhaïlo Kovalenko, he stayed 29 days on the asphalt of Yablounska Street, lying on his side, in his blue parka and beige trousers.
The 62-year-old father loved “classical music” and collected records and hi-fi systems. He enjoyed walking his dog in the Boutcha undergrowth.
On March 5, Mykhaïlo Kovalenko decided to evacuate Boutcha by car while it was still possible. His wife sits in the front and his daughter in the back.
Arriving at Jablounska Street, he got out of the vehicle “with his hands up” to face a barrage of Russian soldiers and to show himself unarmed, says his son-in-law Artyom, who prefers to keep his last name a secret.
The soldiers at the roadblock didn’t want to know anything. They shot him, told his daughter and wife, who managed to run away.
Mr Kovalenko’s relatives identified him from his clothing in a photograph taken remotely by AFP on April 2. “It was terrible,” says Artem.
On April 18, Artem is called to the Boutcha morgue to confirm his stepfather’s identity. The daughter of Mr. Kovalenko, Artyom’s partner, could not come: she left for Bulgaria, where she is being treated for the psychological trauma suffered in Boutcha.
“She wakes up every night and cries,” says Artem.
Mykhaïlo Kovalenko was buried on April 18 in a black coffin in the presence of his son-in-law and two other relatives at Boutcha Cemetery, an AFP journalist reported.
Maxim Kireev, known as “Maxim Without Fear”
He is wearing a light blue down jacket, his socks pulled over his black pants. Next to him are two other men, one of whom has his hands tied behind his back with a white cloth. All three are near cinder blocks that were to be used to refurbish a nearby roundabout.
AFP photographed the passport found next to the man in the down jacket: it is Maxim Kireev, born July 17, 1982.
The 39-year-old construction worker, who did not come from the area, survived the first weeks of the war.
He hid from cellar to cellar, says Iryna Chevtchouk, 52, who spent several days in the same cellar as a refugee.
While the Russian soldiers terrorized the street, Maxim helped everyone, looked for business, tried to get supplies.
“Everyone called him +Fearless Maxim+,” Iryna told AFP, 100 meters from where he died, where a month later a pool of blood is still caked on the ground.
On March 17, Maxim and another man decide to leave their hiding place to get things from a nearby construction site, Iryna explains again.
He never returned and she’s still trying to figure out when and how he died.
“It’s very important to do justice to Maxim, because if nobody punishes them (the Russians), they’ll start again,” stresses Iryna.
For the policeman Lobass, Maxim and his two companions in the accident were “tortured. The bodies of the three men were found with gunshot wounds to the heart or throat.”
Volodymyr Brovtchenko, the man with the blue bicycle
Her body was found flat on the sidewalk, her feet in the frame of a blue bicycle. His things are scattered around him.
According to his sister-in-law Natalia Zelena, Volodymyr Brovtchenko, 68, was shot dead while riding his bicycle down Jablounska Street around March 5.
A neighbor who tried to pick up her body was also shot but survived, Ms Zelena said.
“That day he had to take the bike to Vorzel,” a village near Boutcha where he worked, the 63-year-old said.
“He had borrowed someone’s bike and was determined to bring it back,” she added. Volodymyr’s wife tried to dissuade him from another risky trip, but the father of two wanted to return the bike.
He is of Russian descent and has lived in Boutcha since 1976, she said.