Bucha Massacre Victim: Oleg Abramov

< Bucha Massacre: Victim Oleg Abramov

June 26. 2022

(slightly rough - updates June 28)

This victim of the "Bucha Massacre" is already the subject of an early post here, by blog member Petri Krohn: Monitor on Massacre Marketing: Who killed Oleg Abramov?. (BTW membership and blog authoring here is still possible, I think - so long as I approve it.)  This post will take a deeper dive into this sub-story.  

Petri raised a lot of questions, some of which weren't well-founded, or have been answered since. Others remain. For example, he saw no sign of decay, and took that as meaning a death well after the reported March 5. But it's quite hard to say much about the signs from the one low-resolution view we have, and under refrigeration or winter conditions, these signs can come on quite slowly. Inconclusive. A visual match with one of the victims at 144 Yablunska looked decent by photos, but is probably wrong; those men all have alternate identifications, and Petri didn't realize there probably was a shirtless victim right where Oleg was said to be and where a bloodstain could be seen later. 

Petri asked "Why would [the Russians] target Russian-speakers?" I'm not sure what that was based on - a misread video caption had given me that impression. But in my digging, I found Iryna saying to NBC news of the Russian people, including the occupying soldiers: "I always thought they were our bothers. I'm half-Russian myself." As such, Ukrainian ultranationalists likely had better motive to cause the family harm than the Russians would. This suspicious kind of irony - the Russians opting to burn bridges and kill "their own" as much as possible - keeps popping up with other Bucha Massacre victims: 

* Pro-Russian and anti-Fascist politician Oleksandr Rzhavsky allegedly killed by Russian invaders he was hosting when he poured the vodka too slowly, 3 years after someone murdered his son and had it called suicide. 

* Ethnic Russian Karina Yershova from Donbas who willingly climbed into a V-marked car before she disappeared March 6.

*Zoreslav Zamoysky, the Jewish journalist who remembered the massacre in Odessa, worried about Nazis, and was seen by some as "a supporter of the Russian world."

The same kind of "irony" played heavily in prior incidents like a January, 2015 rocket attack on Vostochniy, Mariupol. And for what it's worth, neo-Nazi thug Serhiy "Botsman" Korotkikh of the infamous Azov Battalion was involved both in that and, at a higher level, in Bucha. In Mariupol, he was amused at how "supporters of the Russian world" just midlessly killed each other. His men in Bucha - the "Botsman Boys" -  on April 2 openly discussed executing locals lacking the approved blue armbands (see here and note Korotkikh's response was that HE wasn't there, but off fighting on the Belarus border). 

Any such killings Azov or the Botsman Boys or their ilk carried out in Bucha would wind up blamed on the Russians, just like Mr. Abramov's killing was.

Intro

Oleg Oleksandrovych  Abramov, age 40, was a welder by profession. He lived with his wife Iryna Abramova (48), in a subdivided house owned by Iryna's father Volodmyr Abramov (72) on the SW corner of Yablunska and Vokzalna streets in Bucha. Igor (or Ihor) took Iryna's last name when they married, the New York Times reported, following on several interviews with Abramova. "They never had children, but Iryna said they had the perfect family: the two of them." 

According to Iryna and her father, Oleg was killed by Russian soldiers on the morning of March 5 2022 just days shy of his 41st birthday (3 sources specify morning, but none gives a more specific time). This is probably the date of a drone video showing a column of at least 19 tanks/AFVs and 3 support trucks stopped in southern Bucha. This was probably released by Azov's recon guy, Serhiy Korotkikh. It was first publicized as a March 3 video, when Kiev's forces claimed control of Bucha. But that may have just been a typo, as March 5 is a better fit in several ways.

The vehicles are presumably, but not certainly, Russian, judging by markings (some with a V, some apparently without), by their number and their movements, and by how they aren't attacked. They were headed west on Yablunska and had mainly turned north towards city center, one block west of Vokzalna. A forward set of two tanks was positioned a bit east of the rest on Yablunska, less than a block from the Abramov's house, when they were seen opening fire on a bicyclist, identified as Irina Filkina, as she rounded their corner (see here). To HRW, Iryna "said that she saw the body of a woman lying next to a bicycle a few meters from their gate, just after Russian forces shot and killed her husband." This helps time the killing of Irina Filkina - verbally, at any rate - as even earlier on the morning of the 5th. 

One of these may be the single tank said to bring death to the Abramov's home shortly thereafter. New York Times: "Ruslan Kravchenko, one of the prosecutors, said different Russian units divided up control of Bucha and he believed members of Russia’s 76th Air Assault Brigade killed Oleh, based on video footage the Ukrainians obtained of Russian troop movements from that time."

Human Rights Watch: 

Iryna, 48, said that Russian soldiers shot at her two-story, multi-unit house on the corner of Yablunska and Vokzalna Streets at the start of their occupation on March 5. 

The soldiers said they were there to free them from the “Nazis” and demanded to know where the Nazis were hiding.“The soldiers accused us of killing people in Donbas,” Iryna said. “They accused us of killing the Berkut in Maidan as well [referring to the since-dissolved riot police unit that killed dozens of protesters during the 2014 Maidan protests in Kyiv]. They concluded that we were guilty and should be punished.” 

As consistently told, the soldiers took Oleg to the corner, stripped off his sweater, made him kneel, and shot him in the head, blowing off the right side. 

HRW: "She said a group of soldiers was standing no more than five meters away, “watching the event as if they thought it was theater.” Richard Engel, NBC News: "She thinks they did it to scare others in Bucha into submission." 

HRW: "Soldiers then told Iryna and Volodymyr to leave or they would be shot. ...  Russian forces ... ordered her to walk southeast down Yablunska Street." It seems thetwo sheltered somewhere else during to occupation, and they lived to tell this tale, quite a few times to a lot of journalists. Below: Volodomyr and Iryna Abramov returned to the scene, from a well-made Hromadske video. 

Oleg's body would remain at the corner until the end of March or early April, after the Russians had left the entire city. A possibly shirtless body seems to appear in a close-up drone video of March 25 (at right w/labels), We can see his head and/or the dark blood near it, what seems like a bare, bent arm, and nothing else clear, as the body seems to be mostly covered with a torn-down banner. 

After that, bloodstains and maybe small bits of brain matter can be seen in that same spot, along with the banner (NBC News videdo). Below: Iryna Abramova standing at the same corner (Hromadske video). Note the holes poked in the fence. We'll come back to that below (see House Notes)

Only in April, after the Russians had left the entire city, was the body moved a bit south on that sidewalk and briefly seen on video (below) just before it's bagged up and removed. This is the best view we have of his body. It's not even clear from this that he has much of his head missing, but it seems likely (and the rest seems a bit darkened with decay) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idux4708A5Y - https://twitter.com/StratcomCentre/status/1511582282708135938

Story Inconsistencies? 

A few important story variations could all be down to mistranslation and erred inference. But they are notable, and might indicate a partly fictional story with inadequate coaching. 

BBC Indonesia: "A Russian tank pulled up outside. Their home was shelled. As it was burning," the soldiers ordered Oleg to come outside. This is the only version where shelling is blamed, rather than a grenade.

BBC: "The soldiers took Oleg out beyond the gate on to the pavement, Volodymyr said, and threw a grenade in through the front door of the house that exploded with a deafening bang and set the house on fire." That sounds like the grenade was tossed after everyone was out. Otherwise, the explosion came first.

Roman Sukhan video: Volodomyr relating the story from all over the scene. At one point he says soldiers threw a grenade in the window, pointing to which one. But then he also says (1:40) "the projectile is flying," makes sound effects like an incoming shell and 3 booms, and "glass flies out." 

NYT: "On the morning of March 5, Iryna said, Russian soldiers attacked her house. They threw a grenade through the window, which started an enormous fire, and marched her and Oleh outside at gunpoint."

"On the night of March 4, they heard huge trucks passing in the road. The next morning, their house was rocked by a grenade, which set off a fire. Gunshots rang out. Their gate was blasted open. Four Russian paratroopers stormed in, she said. Three were young, maybe 20, and the commander was in his 30s."

Whose trucks were driving which way the night before?

Hromadske video: Abramova: "...on the morning of March 5, noise and explosions were heard. A grenade was thrown at our window, and immediately the shooting started at the windows and doors." 

Richard Engel, NBC: "Russian soldiers threw a grenade through the window, and set fire to the house."

Daily Banner: And then on March 4, Russian vehicles passed again. On March 5, we woke up ... then something exploded literally next to us. ... after they threw a grenade into our house, they knocked out the gate and went into the yard." This report and some other mention they were trying to start a gas generator right before the blast. One might wonder if that exploded, but they seem to think it was something else, and it probably was. 

To Ukrainian "Vadim" (standing in front of Oleg's body, moved to the shack along the southeast of the main house: "March 5, morning - we were sitting at home.  We have a house split in half - we were sitting in this part and we heard an explosion. Our half exploded. then the shooting in the windows. ..."

When the house "explodes" with them inside, it's possible one of them would be killed. But allegedly, all three were able to walk out, only for one of them to then be shot. 

"...they took me aside, and the house caught fire. Oleg ran to put it out, but they wouldn't let him" 

HRW: "After an explosion and gunfire, the house caught fire. ... Four soldiers ordered them to come out of the house with their hands above their heads. The soldiers ordered Oleh, 40, and Volodymyr, a pensioner, to extinguish the fire. One soldier continued to question Iryna while three others took Oleh and Volodymyr to the northeast corner of the fenced-in yard. Volodymyr told Human Rights Watch that two soldiers then took Oleh out of the yard. Volodymyr said he pleaded for them to let Oleh come back to help put out the fire. One soldier went to look for Oleh outside the gate, but returned and said, “Oleh will not return.”"

Was he ordered to put out the fire, or prevented from doing so? Logically, it sounds like both. That is possible.

If they mean to say this grenade-triggered fire is the explanation for the house damage we see, that's a serious inconsistency. As it is, they don't specify if this is the case, or if the house was shelled later. No such thing is mentioned. But as I show below, the roof and much of the upper walls are blown off the house and a small barn, an area about 18m square, and the surrounding fences are heavily marked and punctured all across by explosive fragments. 

House Notes 

This house is labeled 342 Yablunska st. on Google Maps. 2015 street views seem to give the address as 342 Kirova street. Was it renamed? That plaque is on the gate to the left, which we see through above. In 2022, there's a sign saying Yablunska. Some photos taken by a Milwaukee Independent reporter show signs giving both names still exist. The possibly related business shack on the side still has the same sign in 2022 post-massacre videos. 

It seems the house was expanded after this view to include a taller portion to the south - 2 stories and an attic that would appear as a triangle above, if it existed. At right is a closer view from the south, looking up Vokzalna st.,\That's the house's final form in the drone video just minutes to hours before the described incident. 

And by the way, why was there no publicized footage from that incident?

The entire sizeable house is seen later fully blown up, along with an apparent pigpen or barn for smaller animals, where the blast(s) removed the roof and upper walls of an area about 18 by 20 meters. Below is based on a March 25 Azov Battalion drone view. 

That view was part of a batch of videos spanning March 23 to 30 released April 7 via Meduza: "These videos were given to Meduza by Belarusian neo-Nazi Serhii “Botsman” Korotkykh, whose combat group is fighting on the Ukrainian side. Korotkykh claims that his fellow combatants regularly filmed Russian positions in Bucha’s southern districts using their own drone." Later they would publish more footage covering March 12-13, via CNN (with the probably neo-Nazi source protected for his "safety"). As Bellingcat found (Twitter) the house  was pretty well destroyed by the time of a March 11 satellite view from Planet.com. Still we haven't seen any footage from the execution, grenade attack, or fire reported here March 5, and nothing between the 5th and the 12th.

The story includes a single grenade and general gunfire, except in one BBC telling where the house was "shelled" by the arriving tank. It would be sometime later, in most cases, when the house was also hit with a powerful artillery strike, maybe even a missile. Unless this exact damage is what the story means by a grenade blowing up and fire. I've seen no mention of it suffering later damage; they mention the grenade as if that's all we need to know. 

To me, it seems the house was impacted in the middle with a powerful shell/rocket/missile, or maybe 2+ of them - the way the north wall was obliterated and the peaked, south-facing wall and north-south walls were left more intact might suggest an incoming angle from the south-southeast. Other clues are less clear so far. It was probably just passive collapse when the peak of the south wall crumbled between 3/25 and 3/28 drone views.

The fence all along is pockmarked - on the right is the body of Irina Filkina and some denser marks seeming partly related to the tank shelling of the downed light pole, but surely including more fragments spreading out from the house. All of this could use more review to see which marks are made from this side vs. the other. 

The NE corner fence in more detail: some random punctures, probably explosive fragments, puncturing sharply from the inside, and some weaker bullets in less random patterns denting the fence from this side, exactly where an unclear banner had been. 

Was there something written across that part of the banner someone didn't like? The same kind of people who would swap in @vshop_18 instead? That obscure reference seemed linked to some high-paying, maybe criminal, "courier" service in Ukrainian cities, especially Odessa. These are the kind of background details we don't know, but that could really matter. Just across the street was spray-pained 1488, well-known "White Power" code referring to David Lane and Adolf Hitler.

Mystery Bodies

Another body (white armband) would appear later on the street in front of the Abarmov house, visible covered in white by March 12/13 (between March 5 and 12, during which there are no drone views available, and during which satellite views mostly see ~100% cloud cover or are unclear) - the same on March 21 (satellite) and March 23 (drone), then uncovered 3/25 and on April 2, then moved to the sidewalk - as seen below - next to an apparent shell impact at the stairs by the front gate. 

Stepping out of that gate later, Iryina said, “I looked to the left. Nothing. I look to the right. I see my husband on the ground,” she said. “I see lots of blood. I see part of his head is gone. Later I see other dead people, in different poses.” (NYT) She mentioned the other Iryna/irina next to her bicycle. And she says "bodies," presumably including this unidentified man. He's not visible in the 3/5 drone video, but probably wouldn't be from the angle. He might connect to the shelled or crushed car that was already there at the intersection as that video was recorded.

Another body would be seen just inside the gate, which Iryna definitely didn't mention. But she did say "The house was divided into three parts, my husband and I lived in one, my father lived in the second, and my cousin lived in the third." (Daily Banner) This cousin isn't mentioned in the narrative, as if he was away or had evacuated, meaning this was probably someone else. The story would say he died after Iryna and Volodomyr were forced to leave. That's likely enough. It seems to be a young male, in a dark jacket and pants, seen next to a fairly intact motorcycle with sidecar, cover in place and not shredded = likely brought here after that shelling, and before the man's death, in some later shooting or shelling. However, Oleg's motorcycle is mentioned in some accounts. 

Conclusion

The story lodged by Iryna Abramova and her father is fairly detailed and consistent, aside from perhaps the grenade vs. shelling issue. Their telling is convincing, if unusually eager and copious. But it's so full of propagandistic points against the Russians that it raises suspicions. 

A woman who "always thought [the Russians] were our bothers," and who lived at an important intersection for keeping the Russians contained, had her (likeminded?) husband killed and the house destroyed, compelling her and her (all-Russian?) father to change their mind and hate the Russians. And the Russians explicitly connected this to their Donbas-Russian-liberation and Ukro-Nazi-hunting themes, which the Ukrainian Nazis are keen to demonize. They had some help here.

Hromadske video: Iryna recalls a Soldier saying: "You are to blame for everything. People are dying in Donbas because of you. Where are the Nazis?" The excange continued: "I said there are no Nazis." "No, give me the address of the Nazis." "I said there are no Nazis! What kind of Nazis can there be?" She says somehow this interrogation went on for three hours as the house burned. They may have turned to other subjects eventually. 

To the New York Times, Abramova has the soldiers saying: "“We have come here to die, and our wives are waiting for us and you started this war. You elected this Nazi government.” (“They love the word Nazi, for some reason,” she added.)" She's learning that the Russians are the real Nazis and all that - Ukrainian nationalist propaganda, here written by the Russians themselves? 

"She thinks they [executed Oleg] to scare others in Bucha into submission." (NBC) They would be worried about very patriotic, anti-Russian fighters operating amidst the civilians. And the Russians thought they could deter them by executing ... a man who didn't resist, who had never served in the military, and was married to a half-Russian woman who used to like Russians. At least Iryna thought they would think this, because she now realizes what brutal Nazi morons they really are? 

It is possible, but I wonder if she's been put under compulsion to speak these lines. But better yet, Ukrainian forces could - potentially - have compelled her and her father with real-world theatrics. with a certain unit using stolen Russian uniforms and equipment, speaking Ukrainian propaganda out loud, in Russian, the whole way picking off their own enemies and potential traitors. If that happened, the victims might play along because they were genuinely fooled, or out of terror at the effort and what it means. 

This would require some 22+ Ukrainian-operated military vehicles in just this part of town, to the zero we know of in all Bucha at the time. The prosecutor investigating Oleg's death "said there were only Russian soldiers, not Ukrainian, in Bucha at the time." (NYT) We know Ukrainian forces were there on Feb. 27 to March 1, driving away seized Russian V tanks. There likely had been some on the 3rd, as part of the government show of force and control, raising the flag at city hall and declaring victory. These may have entirely left by the 5th, or maybe some stayed in a different capacity. We probably wouldn't know about any false-flag unit, even if we knew of their handiwork, all attributed to the Russians they seemed to be, even to the people on the ground.

I was initially quite suspicious Mr. Abramov was killed in a false flag murder. More reasons have emerged to think these were Russian forces after all, but deception still seems possible and worth keeping in mind. I have cast a wide net for this sort of thing, and I'm still catching and sorting. I don't yet have a great case to make yet, but eventually, I aim to have one assembled from the smaller pieces like the killing of Mr. Abramov. 

Bucha Massacre: "When the Russians Arrived"

< Bucha Massacre {Masterlist} 

< Basement Executions in April - "When the Russians Arrived"

May 1, 2022

rough, incomplete ... finished on...

Intro: Who Abducted Five Aid Workers Three Weeks Before the Ukrainians Murdered Them at a Former Russian Base?

My earlier post "Basement Executions in April" introduces this case, where the tortured and executed bodies of five men were found in a cellar of a former children's camp apparently used as a base for Russian forces. That included my initial geo-confirmation of the site at camp Promenystyy (trans. radiant, shiny), noting the white armband on one victim, and more. My most important addition there was to observe strong indications that these men were probably killed late on April 2 or just hours before or after that (faintly wet blood in a dry environment on April 3 at an unclear time, and fading but present rigor mortis as seen early afternoon on the 4th - this usually fades away in ~36 to 48 hours). That's not a real expert view, but it is reason to realize we should get one.

Dan Rivers, for ITV video report, had this basement execution as one of three "senseless" crimes they sought to reconstruct (seeing it as senseless, BTW, suggests one will not be sensing the truth, which is never truly senseless). "Forensic experts are investigating the date of the shooting and haven’t yet made their results public." The results probably won't be published or they won't be truthful. That's because late on April 2 or any time close to that is after Russian forces had left the entire city "as early as" March 30, and no later than the mayor concurring on the evening of the 31st, and they had the wrong color of armbands. 

The Russians could have left "sleeper cells," I suppose, active into April. But in contrast, the Ukrainian and foreign-backed, mercenary-staffed Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion was there and has openly published radio communications of midday on April 2 seeming to approve, and perhaps record, their own summary execution of locals who were found without the approved blue armbands ... people just like the five men executed in that basement, it seems, some hours after that audible evidence. (see here for now, but this subject still deserves more attention - Meduza piece etc. f/c...)

It was also on April 2 that Ukraine's security services publicly announced an operation targeting Russian collaborators, besides booby traps, unexploded shells, etc. The special forces regiment credited with this is called "SAFARI," like they were shooting game, and said it was already underway (for hours? for days?). That may not be the same exact thing as what Azov was running, but whatever the case, these are the crews known to be cleaning the streets and maybe basements of Bucha when these five men were killed.

Here I'll mainly cite three reports - the ITV one, which heard from the sister of one of those killed - plus Ukrainian Mother Relives Horror of Son's Execution in Bucha Basement by James Longman, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Tatiana Rymarenko , and Haley Yamada, for ABC News - and the most detailed report hearing from several sources: The last brave acts of the five Ukrainian men found dead and bound in a Bucha basement by Nathan VanderKlippe, for The Globe and Mail. The latter gives the names, ages and occupations of the five men: 

Viktor Prutko, 24, installed doors and dabbled in advertising. 

Volodymyr Boychenko, 35, worked with a blacksmith. 

Serhii Matiushko, 41, was a labourer. 

Valeriy Prutko, 47, did plumbing work. 

Dmitriy Shumeister [ITV gives Shulmeister], 56, had just started a cleaning company.

The same report adds "none [of the 5] had any military affiliation, friends and relatives said." But for what it's worth, ITV shows Viktor Prutko in a military uniform, presumably regular Ukrainian. That must have been past, but if so, at age 24, he might be expected to serve again in 2022, with martial law and conscription for men aged 18-60 announced February 24. But instead he was stuck behind Russian lines, not escaping to join the fight but helping others to evacuate the city - perhaps to the north, perhaps in conjunction with Russian forces (see below). 

ITV heard the men stayed - at some point when others were leaving over some worsening danger, like approaching Russians, perhaps - to "help organise the evacuation of other civilians," but "Their activities soon attracted the attention of occupying Russian forces who eventually captured them, tortured them and killed them" ... over their staunch opposition to anyone evacuating? Maybe Mr. Prutko's failure to report for service helped set them off? 

Key here: the men had gone missing, presumed abducted by the Russians, back on March 12, In my initial reading of fewer reports, it seemed like they were trying to get people out ahead of Kiev's forces returning in April, when they were perhaps swiped off the road on the 2nd, dragged to the vacated Russian based, murdered, then filmed as Russian victims after a 36-48-hour wait. 

But if they were abducted 2-3 weeks earlier ...this was when the Russians were firmly in charge - or so it would seem, as far as most of us know. And their remains were found at that terrible camp that served as a Russian base.

some oddities in the reporting ... to ITV, Tatiana Shulmeister speaks of her brother Dmitryo being held for a time - and other reports are clear the men vanished weeks earlier, on the morning of March 12 - as they helped people flee the city. I wasn't aware of any specific cause to flee that occurred anywhere near March 12, but maybe ... the city had been and would stay dangerous, and many evacuations were long overdue. It seems agreements on "green corridors" was only achieved by around the 10th, and there were two parallel routes - a Ukrainian one to the west and a Russian one to the north (see below)

VanderKlippe's report for The Globe and Mail relates how hundreds of people from Hostomel and Bucha were sheltering in a bunker beneath a prison. Then "On March 10, authorities" - presumably Russian -  "emptied the bunker, evacuating some people to other parts of Ukraine and sending others home" in the Russian-occupied cities. But the 5 men continued helping people, operating partly from "Campa, a tennis club serving as a staging grounds for people fleeing." An evacuation corridor had been opened “and they were taking people away,” said resident Victor Petrovich. 

Campa is at the far northern edge of Bucha and its municipal park in the north, according to Google Maps labels. The likely Russian  base at camp  Promenystyy is just south of this, in the west middle of the park. 

Globe and Mail's report says the men "set out again on March 12. They told different stories to different people. Ms. Stupnyk heard that they planned to deliver medicine. Mr. Shumeister, an accomplished cook who enjoyed singing Soviet pop songs, told his spouse Victoria Verde he wanted to retrieve documents left in a car he had abandoned during heavy shelling early in the Russian invasion." This isn't a contradiction, of course; a single true mission might have several reasons. 

Viktor Petrovich watched the men arrive at Campa in a blue Peugeot van, and leave again "in the direction of Bucha’s council buildings" - that is, south - "on a route that passed the Shiny [promenytsyy] children’s centre, located less than a kilometre away." “They left with the car at 9:30 a.m.,” Ms. Stupnyk said. “They were going to deliver medication. But they never came back.”

Interestingly, when Galyna Matyoshko spoke to ABC News, she "said her son Serhiy was helping evacuees when the Russians arrived. “They came like a hurricane, causing so much pain. For what?” said Matyoshko." ... "According to Matyoshko, her son was helping evacuate women and children from the houses near the Bucha summer camp when he disappeared along with a friend who was doing the same on March 12." 

To ITV, the Russian occupiers "eventually captured" the men operating under their noses, smuggling people out, for a while. Here, the Russian marauders swoop in with cruelty, like some non-occupiers. By the clinical signs, these men died shortly after Ukrainian forces arrived - you could say like a hurricane. But when they went missing at about the same spot on the 12th ... who might be arriving there and then? 

Long Thoughts on Who Ran Bucha Around March 12

It turns out this is an odd spot in the maps I've been citing, compiled by Ankara-based freelance journalist Dr. Abdullah Manaz, a supporter of Ukrainian forces. These are surely not exact or definitive, and it's not clear just what they are based on, but it seems like claims from Kiev, reflecting some of their own revisions and omissions - and the details at the town and district levels are vague, needing scaled up hugely to compare, and even then only giving some idea who had more influence over what areas on or near these dates. 

The image below compiles some cropped parts of Manaz maps for the relevant time span, some of the Kiev area in detail, and some nation-level, each with Bucha's outline sketched roughly in white. Purple is Russian-held "yesterday," and the red line shows changes by "today." According to this, the Russians steady, full Russian control of Bucha from March 5 on, same between 3/9 and 3/14 - but a strange and total one-day takeover by Ukraine appears on the 15th, extending to just where the men vanished ... March 10 map (link) -  skipping 11 because it's reflected 3/12 - all the same -  3/13 and 14 I didn't grab the links for (and my list of them all isn't handy), but as I show, they're the same.

No Manaz maps were published for March 15 and it - or maybe previous day's map - missed something that appears mysteriously with the 3/16 update (link). This shows Russia in full control again on the 16th (red line), after somehow holding only the northern and western oputskirts on the 15th. Both developments seem unexplained but of great interest. 

A similar thing happens in reverse with the maps of March 5 and 6 as Russia's reign of terror over Yablunska street was said to begin on the 5th, according to the map of the 6th. But on the 5th, Dr. Manaz heard Kiev still in control of the city as they nhad been from the 3rd. That traces official statements as related in the Wikipedia article Battle of Bucha: On March 3 it was "announced that Ukrainian forces recaptured Bucha." Russians were still resisting, but were "pushed into the city's outskirts." On the 4th "the city remained under Ukrainian control, despite Russian forces continuously launching attacks" and on the 5th the same; "Russian forces continued to attack Bucha." Then "Later, Arestovych stated that Russian forces had captured both Bucha and Hostomel, and were not allowing civilians to evacuate." 

It seems like Kiev had been denying progressive losses, then admitting total loss at the end of that. But it's interesting how officials seemingly decided late on March 5 that they had lost control earlier that day, and just didn't notice it at the time. Also, an insane killing spree had begun just then at the no-man's land of mortar alley on Yablunska street. (It's widely reported, based on verbal claims, that nearby snipers to the northwest started killing locals this day. But the visual evidence suggests most were killed with mortar shelling from southeast of Bucha, from outside the Russian-controlled area. As seen in a video dated March 7, and said to show aftermath of 2+ strikes on March 5, some 11 people were killed along Yablunska - most of those we'd first see strewn on the street plus 5 we couldn't see. Just one crater and one body were added later, sometime before the 12th. See mortar alley post. That is consistent with their being excluded from the area, for what it's worth.)

In fact the definition of the purple areas in the Manaz maps isn't so clear. Maps by the Institute for the Study of War employ a different criteria and show Bucha and everything around it as a vague, mostly  unchanging area of Russian "advance," not Russian "control" for the entire time, perhaps reflecting the mixed reality in which Kiev's forces could never really be excluded. 3/18: https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1504950017542533131 - crop from this below, Bucha traced on:

3/12 seems the same: https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1502767739722768396 - maybe ISW just don't track details that fine in these maps. The ISW daily report 3/12 doesn't mention Bucha, but says "Russian forces did not conduct offensive operations northwest of Kyiv for the second day in a row." They didn't hear about them arriving anywhere at this time, but didn't hear of them losing any ground either.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-12

Okay, so ... Was there a mid-March re-conquest by Ukraine somewhere in here, maybe with progressive gains over days that couldn't be published at the time? There's some evidence for this happening and then being admitted on the 15th, as some previously unseen footage surfaced "of abandoned Russian equipment reportedly in Bucha, northwest of Kyiv" that "can now be published" ( Telegram - Twitter) The scene has been geolocated as near Bucha Passage Mall - pretty much in the center of town (spot labeled in green on the map below) - well inside the vast areas mapped by Manaz as Ukrainian-held on or by the 15th. 

This might be old video from around the 3rd that "can NOW be published" but it was used to boost new claims: "The area has been cleared by our defenders" and it's implied that happened recently. (the weather seems too ambiguous to call) Maybe the same could "now be published" with no explanation on the Manaz maps, as it was, suddenly and with no explanation.

A Ukrainian news account on Twitter used a different photo of a long-ago charred AFV to report, on the 16th, "#Bucha - Russian scum is knocked out. Work to free people is underway. Special operation #APU continues." (assuming it's a new photo, it would be worth geolocating ... anyone want to do thart?)

A March 12 video: "Soldiers of the Azov Regiment showed what happened to the city of Bucha near Kyiv after the arrival of the occupiers" - filmed among the wrecked tanks on on Vokzal'na street, well inside the area of control mapped on 3/15, dated "March" and only appearing March 12. But this is most likely from around the 3rd. The extreme overcast weather, traces of snow, and snow actually falling supports that. 

Still... it seems Ukrainian forces, Neo-Nazi or otherwise, were operating over quite a bit of Bucha by March 15. Manaz maps re-traced to scale by highways, etc. - areas of interest noted. Again, this isn't certain or gospel, but it's based on something, and crucially, this shows a front line right at the Promenystyy camp and any checkpoint outside it, as well as everything one would pass if they made it any further south. It has that existing only by the 15th, but it was probably established earlier. All considered, I propose this fairly reflects the reality, and it was a brand-new fact, unknown to most, on the morning of March 12. 

 

Russian Arrests at City Council?

Add May 2, a detail I forgot about: https://interfax.com.ua/news/general/814280.html

"On Tuesday evening, March 15, the Russian occupants wreaked havoc in the administrative building of the Bucha city council and captured our employees and volunteers, who helped the residents of our city to the last under shelling," the Bucha city council on Facebook. The council itself had evacuated long before, but lower employees and others were operating there Who was shelling? Why wreak havoc? Good reasons to remove them would be to protect them from shelling, or from a massacre that would be blamed on Russia - Postulating a March 12 presence near camp Promenytsyy vs. UA attcak or RU "rescue" at city hall on the 15th ... seems plausible enough. They might be focused on different axes on different days. 

Sim cards removed from phones so the people couldn't be contacted, maybe so they could be killed, or taken to Russia - the Russians might say that was to prevent Ukrainian ops including rescue or drone attacks that use cell phone signals. All agree the captives were released the next day unharmed, as things calmed down and Russian control seemed clearer for the moment.   

Areas of Control and Different Evacuation Efforts

The reported evacuation point at Campa is still Russian-held this whole time. Russia says it was allowing, and was perhaps arranging, evacuations to the north, maybe with some civilian help... (see here, bottom) "The exits from Bucha were not blocked. All local residents were free to leave the town in northern direction, including to the Republic of Belarus." They said routes to the south were too unsafe; "the southern outskirts of the city, including residential areas, were shelled round the clock by Ukrainian troops with large-calibre artillery, tanks and multiple launch rocket systems." 

The bridge to Irpin passes through the described horror show, and it was used (adding after I've seen images of evacuation, all by foot, on March 12 and 24). But Kiev's arranged evacuations, beginning on the 10th or 11th after some earlier tries, was mainly to the east "through a pedestrian crossing on the blown-up bridge in Romanivka between Irpen and Novoirpinskaya highway (it is from there that the world's media have those sensual illustrative photos). Sometimes under fire." (Suspline) This rickety plank bridge would bring them, with just a few bags and often wet, to Horenka and then Kiev itself. Who was shooting or shelling the people crossing there is, of course, disputed, but it was Kiev that had blown up the bridge portion of this 4-lane highway suddenly, on February 25, to block the Russian advance. 

A northern, Russian-organized evacuation was also running, with actual roads and vehicles, perhaps in the face of a Ukrainian re-conquest, with people headed away from Kiev's forces. They call this sort of evacuation a kidnapping by the Russians, stealing people mainly to Russia for later use, or here in Belarus. They won't like accomplices to that. It's illegal for conscription-worthy Ukrainian men aged 18-60 to cross any border by free will. That's treason. So benefit of the doubt, they assume it was at gunpoint...

A Scenario: Brought Back to the Kidnapping Site

Any civilian helpers in an evacuation effort might wear white armbands as they drive around Russian forces, since that's a commonly-used IFF (identify friend or foe) sign. It's said everyone was forced to wear them, but what good is it to know who everyone is? 

One of the five victims wears this as seen after the murder - other might have worn them earlier but had them taken off, or took them off when they saw Ukrainian forces. Or they may have never worn the things, as they ducked back south to do some last heroic thing. 

Again, their group included a former solider freely operating in a Russian area, installing doors and helping people out instead of killing Russians - along with his uncle - another man who "enjoyed singing Soviet pop songs" - one or more in white armbands. I could maybe tell by the names, but some of them might ethnic Russians, maybe with matching sentiments the Western news reports have glossed over. And they got nabbed at or near this sudden - or eventual - temporary front line with the yellow-and-blue armband crew. 

And we can be fairly certain Ukrainians, likely Azov Battalion, eventually murdered the same volunteer aid workers; So logically, their kidnappers should be the same people, wherever exactly that happened. 

Or ... Since they hate people being evacuated so much, it must be the Russians who took the men? They just noticed these efforts only right there at the edge of their control at its lowest point, likely as they came under direct attack themselves? The Russians ran that camp and surrounding areas the whole time? Well,  ... that's not so clear at the time when the men were arrested there ... and it was definitely not the case when the same men were killed there. 

In between, the Russians did (or should have) run the camp, presumably the entire time. It would make a great base, and there's plenty sign of their presence. But how do we know that's where the men were held? It seems more like the other side who detained the men and later executed them. But they probably couldn't keep their prisoners at someone else's base in the interim, so that adds a wrinkle.

In the scenario I propose, the 5 men would be nabbed in what amounted to little more than a raid at the front line, letting the fact of their disappearance there become a recorded fact. Then they - again, probably being the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion or some criminal allies of theirs - would cart the men off and hold them in some other location, probably nearby in some corner of no-man's land they had made their own. 

They could let the Russians expend more effort reclaiming the city again, but then take it back again, starting right away (Manaz maps have full Russian control regained by 3/16, but the eastern half re-taken by Kiev as of the 19th). 

Finally, when the kidnapping scum (in this scenario) get back to this camp around April 2, they would simply haul the men back, kill them on-site, and let that magic work itself out. Hopefully no one would notice that the killings were committed after the Russians had left, when Ukraine was in charge, or that their kidnapping may have come amid an earlier Ukrainian encroachment, or that either way, their Ukrainian killers must have abducted them as well. 

Re-considering the photographs, it does seem the victims' clothes and hands are too grubby to be recently at liberty. It seems they had no basic hygiene, wherever they were held, were likely underfed and were possibly tortured.

At least three cars, scuffed and sideswiped and spray-painted V, were seen on the camp grounds - it's not clear how these relate. Are they from the March 12 arrest and left since, from other arrests in April? I haven't seen a blue Peugeot van, as the men were reportedly in at last sighting. Most logically, they would have been carted away in it, and wherever it wound up, the killers torched it if they were smart.

Questions are raised. Galyna Matyoshko said to ABC of her son Serhii Matiushko: “I don't know how long he was there, he lost half of his weight. I don't know if they fed him or not." Three weeks plus, they probably fed him a bit. But who were they?

Tatiana Shulmeister, to ITV, of her brother Dmitriy: “They were kept in that basement, got tortured and brutally abused, and after all that they got executed." They may have been kept in a different basement most of the time. 

Natalia Stupnyk to The Globe and Mail: Those responsible “are worse than animals,” Ms. Stupnyk said of Valeriy and Viktor Prutko. “I curse their entire family line for all of their abuses toward my husband and my nephew.” Fair enough. They may be the same people feeding us our news reports, providing witnesses speaking under extreme threat and from  confusion and ignorance engineered by the killers.

Galyna Matyoshko - who by the way was told her son had suffered far worse injuries than the official autopsy reported - said “I didn’t want to delete [the photos of his body]; I wanted the whole world to see it and know that it’s a fact,” she said. “I'm not holding on to them to hurt myself, I want everyone to know that this isn’t fake. That this is my son, that this happened to me and my son. ... You can’t even imagine this pain. My soul is crying. God forbid this happens to anyone.” Nothing to add to that except that real does not necessarily mean Russia did it, and that even if Russia didn't do it, his murder still deserves a real, truthful investigation and a semblance of justice, as do the others.

In Context

That might sound like a crazy scenario, but it really is crazy times. Consider the brutal "Russians" didn't just arrive at Bucha's north once at mid-month. They have reportedly swooped in on the city to murderous effect in consecutive waves, leaving different kinds of devastation in their wake, often closely filmed but not attacked by Azov Battalion drones:

* March 25-27, genuine and sizeable Russian military movements are halted - Russian forces caused unclear numbers of citizens injures and deaths, by heading to a bridge or by getting massively attacked right next to homes and in occupied vehicles. (that is, there was some pretty massive unacknowledged collateral damage from Kiev's desperate first moves to halt the Russians at Bucha and Irpin, and no reliable evidence I've seen for any Russian brutality then - admitting I've seen far from everything).

* They arrived again on March 3, from the west as they might, with a column of tanks turning north, towards city hall, where Kiev had or would announce control and raise the flag this same day (time frame unclear) - only a few seem to be marked V, while others aren't and others are unclear (that is, they might be Ukrainian with some captures, of which they had many) - a lead tank seeming to stand guard is watched by an Azov drone firing its cannon at a bicyclist on Yablunska street - the earliest reported killing there (but it looks like a car was already crushed at the same intersection)

* Again with the torture center, rape cellar, and high-rise snipers the Russians were back on mortar alley on March 4, reportedly sniping locals from the morning of the 5th and forward - but all we can SEE is shelling from Kiev way - https://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-bucha-massacres-mortar-alley.html

* They run the town from this ruthless fringe to the north and the west, pretty fully and with an iron fist up to the 14th, or so, ...

* then they're back again on 3/16 after a mysterious UA offensive retook and lost almost all of Bucha in the span of 1-2 days ... or some conquest, perhaps around the 12th, was left unreported.

* Again the Russians arrived, or got extra brutal with torture and executions, in one area after the next across the south of Bucha, generally a bit after Manaz maps have Kiev's forces back in control, or whatever that is not shaded purple - killings on 3/20 and 3/25 in areas taken by 3/19 (eastern outskirts and mortar alley), tortures-killing of 11 men around the time of a 3/24 (or earlier) taking of the southwest quadrant. The more populous NW 1/3 was only taken after Russian forces withdrew on the 30th following talks and also under attack, and that included these 5 men killed probably on April 2.

* And maybe the Russians arrived again just after they left, maybe with some white-armband sleeper cells, to take credit for any of the early April clearance operation, or anything earlier, that simply cannot be back-dated enough. We'll see if that too emerges and becomes accepted newsfact.

Bucha Massacre {Masterlist}

April 9, 2022 

(incomplete - last update July 17)

Sub-posts:

Basement Executions in April of 5 men at a Russian base, at least 2 days after the Russians had left it

    "When the Russians Arrived" or maybe the Ukrainians, on March 12, is when those 5 men went missing

A detailed post on mortar alley. - the first place we saw with bodies left out for weeks - most were killed by mortar / artillery shelling from the Ukrainian-controlled southeast. Needs updating.

Some Horrors Russian Troops Left in Bucha: Burned Bodies: 2 Russian soldiers killed in Irpin left out, burned to conceal ID, passed off as civilians killed by the Russians in Bucha - and related issues

https://libyancivilwar.blogspot.com/2022/05/bucha-mass-execution-video-false-flag.html - paused investigation of March 4 execution of 8 men at 144 Yablunska 

Sergei Kolosei, the Bucha Massacre's First Named "Suspect" - Bucha prosecutors messed up big time.

RFE/RL Witnesses and Question About the Bucha Massacre

Killings on Ivana Franka street

Andrew Hill's "Vagzalnaja" Mass Grave "Revelation"

Victims: 

 - The Killing of the Chikmaryov Family: a mother and 2 sons killed, along with a neighbor, in 2 cars, as they tried to flee Bucha early on March 5 - or perhaps on the 6th, or 8th or 9th ... 

 - Irina Filkina

- Oleg Abramov

    - earlier post on Oleg Abramov

 - Karina Yershova

- Oleksander Rzhavsky 

 - Zoreslav Zamoysky

Special study on fighting, control, and events: Death in Bucha's Gray Zone parts 1-(8?) - the first 4 are rough, incomplete, but published.

    Part 1 Defended with Artillery - overview of the gray zone defense policy

    Part 2 Making a Dead End on the E373: Feb. 25 accidental crossing of the Irpin river and resultant destruction

    Part 3 Making a Roadblock at Vokzalna Street 

    Part 4 Shelling in the Novus District, 2/27-28 

    Part 5 Bucha both "Liberated" and "Completely Occupied" - forthcoming

    Part 6 the Russians Take Over - forthcoming

    Part 7 Inaugurating a Reign of Terror on Yablunska (18 killings March 4-10)

    ...

Looking for some kind of overview? See starting overview: Towards Understanding the Bucha Massacre - a bit dated, some important updates made, more planned, and both that and this will link to sub-posts and somehow between them cover the entire "Bucha Massacre" pretty well.

Bucha Massacre: Basement Executions in April

< Bucha Massacre {masterlist} 

Basement Executions in April 

April 8, 2022

last edits 4/10

Among those killed in the "Bucha Massacre" are some five men in a basement, bound and shot in the head, apparently. This was useful in showing Russian brutality in an area deep in the north of Bucha, at an alleged Russian base on the grounds of a former children's camp. 

This is far from the corpse-strewn no-man's-land in the south of Bucha that led news of the massacre. It seems those people were killed along Yablunska street well before Ukrainian forces controlled the area, but were mainly killed by shelling from their locations to the south. Many of those, and one of these five, wears the white armband said to indicate support for or cooperation with the Russians. But these victims were clearly bound and executed, allegedly by the Russians, so when and where become important questions. 

citing mainly: CNN report, April 4 https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-putin-news-04-04-22/h_6ae41ea2a3cd3ef832b8c009a8c51793

RFE/RL / Current Time video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-YKSLz536U

geo-location: https://twitter.com/CL4Syr/status/1512070239189561358

camp "Promenystyy" had a photo that matches the basic style - different paintjob now, but same structure and roof style in similar woods - Hromadske reports: "mass graves" were found on the grounds of "the agricultural enterprise "Ukrahropostach"" and at "the children's camp "Promenystyy" 

Coordinates: 50.5642213,30.210995 - set inside Bucha municipal park at the city's northern edge. The grounds map posted there vs. satellite view:

Adding 4/10: images and claims and video from Val, plus Kobs geolocation says this same camp's west edge was "exact same place where some Ukrainian vehicles got destroyed way back on Feb 24." It's not clear if they were just passing by or were setting up base there. It seems like a useful area, quite possibly used by both sides as possible, and in March that would mainly be the Russians.

 

There are also reports of eighteen mutilated bodies of men, women, and children in a summer camp's basement in Zabuchchya, a town south of Bucha and Irpin, but also included under the Bucha massacre heading. (the Times) I think I have a photo from that site, and it's full of terrible mysteries. But I haven't seen many reports on it, and it's a different scene for another post, maybe. 

At this site, "An advisor to the Ukrainian interior minister, Anton Gerashchenko, told CNN on the ground that the five men had been tortured and executed by Russian soldiers." That couldn't be confirmed. Here's Gerashchenko looking on as the body with the armband that usually means pro-Russian is carried by.

Rigor Mortis = Killed in last 2 Days

CNN's report said the bodies "were in advanced stage of decomposition," having been killed at least 4 days ago when Russian force were still in charge. But in fact, they seem to be in the earliest stages of decay because they were killed well after the Russians left. 

RFE/RL's video of removal and a photo with the CNN report include short shadows from the southwest, so early afternoon, maybe 2-3 PM (the building I think it is faces south, with a very slight SW trend, and sun is well SW relative to that). 

It seems about the same time when the bodies are laid, one has his binding cut and two are seen being rolled over, at 0:45 0:53 in the video. 

The bodies being rolled over lets us see an important clue - the first one seems moderately stiff, pivoting on one shoulder to fall on its back all at once, like a plank. No still image really shows that, but here at right, and note his cheeks are almost a living but pale pink, no different from the arm of the man handling him. His skin is not the slightest bit discolored. 

The other body we see rolled has hands that are also normal color, but rolls differently, relaxed and floppy. 

Assuming they died about the same time, this suggests rigor mortis is fading in their group, quicker with some than others. This usually sets in 6-8 hours after death as (I think) calcium no longer used for neuro-transmission coats skeletal muscles with a mineral crust. SOmething about lactic acid buildup also plays in ... I'm a bit hazy. 

Some people don't know this but, whatever the exact cause of it, rigor mortis then fades away after 36-48 hours. 

https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/forensicspostmortem.html

"With the onset of putrefaction, rigor mortis passes off, and secondary relaxation occurs. Secondary relaxation occurs at around 36 hours after death due to the breakdown of the contracted muscles due to decomposition."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK539741/#article-27523.s3

That might happen slower in the cold  - I've read that heat accelerates rigor mortis. But looking it up, I see "The onset of rigor mortis is more rapid if the environment is cold." Still, I'm not sure how to include any difference and the coats might counteract it pretty well, so let's just say the usual time-frame and note it might be a bit shorter, not likely to be longer, https://journals.lww.com/amjforensicmedicine/Documents/_Rigor_Mortis__in_a_Live_Patient.pdf 

Experts should also have a say on this subject, but until then, my estimate is 36-48 hours before filming time (14:00 on the 4th)  = time of murder: between 2 PM on April 2 and 2 AM on April 3. Later times than this are more likely than earlier ones, but April 1 can't be entirely ruled out. Any time earlier can be. And it might well have happened after 2 AM on the 3rd.

The blood left beneath the victims and on the wall seems pretty well dried, but it isn't pooled anywhere except for in a deep layer of absorbent basement dust. Thin layers running down a wall or leaked into dust will all dry quickly, so hardly any time can be ruled out by this clue. However ...

first videos of the bodies still in place afternoon of the 3rd - earliest 2 postings I found, about 30 minutes apart:

4/3 16:39 local time https://twitter.com/typolinb/status/1510613064760107015

4/3 17:07 https://twitter.com/Meduselchen/status/1510619966722256909

April 3 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO49tWSCMco

Noteworthy: the blood beneath one victim is still partly wet, and the blood leaked down one's knee is still wet, with no rain here to help explain that. I don't know just how quickly blood dries, but it makes sense that it stopped flowing 12-24 hours before this video, or even less. "Advanced stages of decay," they said.

 

Significance

Even in the north of Bucha, Russian and Ukrainian official agree that Russian forces had left on or by March 31. Any killings after that - as these seem to be - can hardly be blamed on the Russians. Late on April 2.it was announced an operation was underway (special forces regiment "Safari") to clear the city of Russian collaborators and saboteurs. This operation was likely underway at the time of these killings, even if that predates the announced start. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20220402185448/https://en.lb.ua/news/2022/04/02/12441_special_forces_regiment_safari.html

Separately, Azov Battalion's Serhiy Korotkikh posted a video on April 2 of his "Boatsman boys" patrolling Bucha that day or earlier, an overcast hard-to-time midday. As he examines burnt out Russian tanks, he casually gives permission over the radio for people without their blue arm bands to be shot.

See my prior analysis, and adding here Antiwar Soldier's note: "Here is noise corrected video, where a phrase "please do not kill me" and shot is better heard." I wasn't even aware it was even supposedly audible. It's quite possible those exact men killed apparently late on the 2nd, whom Korotkikh approved the murder of. On the other hand, there were probably a lot of other murders besides these five.

Russian Base and Other Clues

V markings as used by Russian forces in the area, are scrawled all over the camp in spray paint, as if to remind the soldiers where they were. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax5PCv8y7Us

V markings on 2 cars, after they had been sideswiped and smashed up a bit. It might also be after this sideswiping that these cars and their kidnapped occupants were brought here to murder.

Antiwar Soldier: "Here is one interesting video from Kharkiv where an arrested criminal explains that after a criminal killing they moved the car with corpses of people they shoot closer to Russian controlled territory, so it would look like done by Russians."

https://twitter.com/antiwar_soldier/status/1511780625329664004

Swap in "Bucha" in for "Kharkiv" and it sounds like the probable real story here.

CNN: "The dead men had their hands tied behind their back and most of them had several gunshot wounds, not just to the head, but also to the lower limbs. "

3/18: Ukrainian reports say Russian soldiers have been using Ukrainian ammunition to shoot themselves in the legs so they can avoid fighting. 

https://nypost.com/2022/03/18/russian-troops-reportedly-shooting-themselves-in-the-legs-to-avoid-fighting/

3/27: video appears where Ukrainian soldiers filmed THEMSELVES shooting Russian prisoners of war in the legs with Ukrainian ammunition. To prove the first story? How many times did that happen un-filmed?

https://www.bbc.com/news/60907259

Well these ones didn't shoot themselves, and don't seem to be soldiers, although one wears the white armband. And their legs were shot on about April 2, one week after that videotaped example of what Ukrainian Fascists do to Russians, and maybe to their supporters and accomplices.