On March 31, 2025, three years after Russia’s massacre in a city in the Kyiv oblast, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Today in Bucha, I said we all want to end this war as soon as possible with guaranteed security, lasting peace, and dignity.” That means, he added, that “Russia must not gain any benefit from this war, and must not evade just accountability for what it has done.” In a dispatch from a resident of Bucha, life is being carried out “to the full,” he told PassBlue. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY/X
Vorzel, a village of about 6,900 people in the city of Bucha, was once a refuge for Ukrainians fleeing Russian occupation in the east in 2014. Hidden by forests of thin-leaf trees and shrubs, Vorzel provided safety — until a fateful day in 2022, when Russian forces encircled the area, unleashing a massacre that swept through the village and elsewhere in Bucha.
By the end of February 2022, Vorzel itself succumbed as Russian soldiers raided Bucha, rolling in with tanks from the north in Belarus. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission said 178 people were killed in the first few days of the invasion. Fear gripped Vorzel as Russian soldiers marched through the streets, grabbing men from their homes and executing anyone, including dogs, who stood in their path.
Residents hid in basements, knowing that stepping outside meant staring down the barrel of a Russian gun. Those who dared to leave met the firing nuzzles. Children, the elderly and the vulnerable were not spared, a resident who survived those dark months told PassBlue in a phone call recently.
The Wall of Remembrance in Bucha memorializing victims of Russia’s massacre in the area in March 2022. The Church of St. Andrew the First-Called, above, remained unscathed during the bloodbath, but a trench nearby that had been used as a mass grave of victims of Russia’s atrocities was unearthed in May 2022, revealing 119 of the townspeople killed by Russian forces.
“At first glance, you cannot notice that something happened here three years ago,” the resident said.
He turned the camera on his device to a window to show the grass outside — green, lush — healed from the scorchers of bombs and airstrikes of past years. It’s a peaceful village, he said of Vorzel, and it is regaining its calm even though it is still interrupted by the hums of Russian drones.
“It’s a forest,” he said, showing what his village looks like. “Very comfortable, very convenient, very safe for kids. Many people moved here from Kyiv and other cities. We received a lot of refugees from the east, starting in 2014. And now, there are new waves of refugees that are coming from new occupied territories.”
Bucha was reclaimed by Ukrainian forces in April 2022, but more than 13,000 civilians have been killed across the country since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. Russia’s attacks on every aspect of Ukrainian life continue to this day, despite attempts by the United States to try to broker a peace deal.
Nevertheless, reconstruction has pressed on in Bucha against the backdrop of the war. Bullet-ridden walls and road signs stand as silent witnesses to the violence. Flatlands mark where homes and stores once stood. The renovated houses have mismatched paint jobs. Stores and businesses are rebuilding with support from the government and humanitarian organizations. International nongovernmental organizations continue to provide aid, helping local entrepreneurs reconstruct what was lost.
In the heart of Bucha, the Church of St. Andrew the First-Called remains unscathed, but the grounds surrounding it tell a different story. In May 2022, a mass grave was uncovered beside the church, with more than 100 residents discovered, having been executed by Russian troops while trying to escape the onslaught.
Bucha, March 31, 2022. The surprise attack by Russian troops in the area included civilians executed in captivity, with many victims’ bodies found with their hands tied behind their backs and gunshot wounds to their heads, the UN says. No accountability or justice for the atrocities have been carried out so far.
Matilda Bogner, the head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine at the time, described the atrocities in harrowing detail, saying in 2022: “Russian soldiers brought civilians to makeshift places of detention and then executed them in captivity. Many of the victims’ bodies were found with their hands tied behind their backs and gunshot wounds to their heads.”
To honor the people who were killed, a memorial wall — with 501 names — now stands in the center of Bucha. For residents, the wall is a call for justice and a reminder that they will always be prepared to defend their country. On the wall, the name of Kozyrev Timur, a two-year-old killed on March 14, 2022, sits above Rudenko Iryna, a 99-year-old woman slain by the Russians only a few days before. The UN says the number of civilian casualties is probably higher.
“It means that Russians made no difference among people who may stay in front of their barrels,” the Vorzel resident told PassBlue. “They kill almost everyone whom they want to kill at that particular moment. That’s why there are a lot of kids, women and seniors who were killed by the Russians.”
Evidence of Russian forces’ gunshots in metal gates and walls remain as they were in 2022. More people with disabilities are seen on the street in Bucha since then, and signs in cars warn that the driver has lost a limb or other body part, so to be patient with the person.
The war has left visible marks on the town’s residents as well. There are more people with disabilities seen on the street, the resident said. There are more cars with a sign that says the driver has lost a limb or other parts of their body. Before the war, such sights were rare.
Or at least they were not this many, he recalled.
Yet, amid the ruins, life continues. Children are back in school and their playgrounds are rebuilt, but with underground shelters. Every new structure in Bucha has a bunker built underneath it. Parents let their children to play on the green lawns again, running as they did before the war.
“We are learning to live our normal lives,” the resident said.
Damilola Banjo
Damilola Banjo is an award-winning staff reporter for PassBlue who has covered a wide range of topics, from Africa-centered stories to gender equality to UN peacekeeping and US-UN relations. She also oversees all video production for PassBlue. She was a Dag Hammarskjold fellow in 2023 and a Pulitzer Center postgraduate fellow in 2021. She was part of the BBC Africa team that produced the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Sex for Grades.” In addition, she worked for WFAE, an NPR affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. Banjo has a master’s of science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an undergraduate degree from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.