In this image from March 4, 2022, surveillance video provided by the Ukrainian government, Russian troops lead nine men at gunpoint to their headquarters on Yablunska Street in Bucha, where they would be tortured and executed. The men were picked up as part of what Russian soldiers called “zachistka” – cleansing. They hunted people on lists prepared by their intelligence services and went door to door to identify and neutralize potential threats. (Ukrainian government via AP)
Bucha was a modern Kiev suburb of 30,000
Nice houses and apartments, stores and restaurants
When Russians occupied for 33 days during the early siege of Kiev
458 bodies have been found so far
In the streets and at the homes
116 in a mass grave behind St Andrews
There wasn’t time to bury each in their own
People were buried if and when they could
Depending on the fight
Three Bucha volunteer gravediggers were on duty
In the day and in the night
Bucha’s gravediggers know the toll
And how their townspeople fell
Thwarted Russians lashing out
Turned Bucha to a hell
Russian snipers randomly killed
Often with shots to the head
A girl with firewood heading home
A man biking out for medicine
Tanks fired on apartment buildings
For no military reason
An elderly couple in their breakfast nook
Killed in brick and rubble
A man driving his wife and two kids
Put them in the backseat to be safe
But when he u-turned to avoid a checkpoint
Machine-gun fire raked
Killed the wife and both kids
Blew the man’s leg almost off
He limps with an artificial leg now
And sees no purpose to life
Pulling bodies from basements
Gravediggers dread
That’s where torture happened
Before a bullet to the head
Bucha’s gravediggers saw the need
A grim and dangerous calling
They faced death daily in the streets
To respect the Bucha fallen
Waipahu Bob 