'It's Cold, Let Them Lie Still,' Bucha Residents Recount 'Horror' Of Russian Killings

As the world reels in shock of the Bucha "massacre," local residents recount the horrific experience they had to go through before Russian forces retreated from the Ukrainian city. They recalled how they were banned from collecting the dead bodies from the streets until Bucha was liberated.

Hundreds of bodies, some with hands bound and shot at close range, were found in the city, located outside Kyiv, after Russian troops withdrew from the capital area. Ukraine has accused Russia of war crimes after the discovery.

Reports said two sections of Chechen special forces from the Russian National Guard or Rosgvardia were deployed in Bucha, besides another paramilitary riot-control force known as OMON. While the Chechens are led by warlord leader Ramzan Kadyrov, OMON is deployed by the Kremlin. The marines from Vladivostok and motorized rifles from Khabarovsk were also reportedly present in Bucha.

Sergey Kalychny, head of funeral services in Bucha, said the Russian troops did not allow the bodies of those killed to be collected from the streets until the city was liberated.

"They didn't allow it. They said: 'It's cold, let them lie still.' We explained to them that three of their soldiers were also lying there and they needed to be taken away, and they seemed to have allowed ... There were bodies in the morgue, the refrigerators did not work. It was terrible there," Kalychny was quoted by Radio Svoboda, a Belarusian service of Radio Free Europe.

Kalychny said he collected 30 bodies on April 3, two of them belonging to soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. While one was a veteran, another was born in 1995.

Another Bucha resident said those who died on one of the streets of the city were killed by a sniper. The resident, who refused to reveal his identity, told Radio Liberty that the sniper shot at everyone who appeared on the street.

"On March 5, a sniper appeared. He killed my son-in-law on the street before the curfew," he added.

The report quoted local residents who said most of the shootings happened in the last five days before the city was liberated. Some of them claimed they heard a sniper boast that he took two people through windows. "It wasn't an accident or military necessity. It was an execution of civilians. They were just killing us," a local resident told the news outlet.

"People have started to bury the bodies in the courtyards. I have come here for the first time just to take a look," Ihor, another Bucha resident, said while sharing his "horror" at the sight.