Death in Bucha's Gray Zone, masterlist

Death in Bucha's Gray Zone {Masterlist}

< Bucha Massacre

First posted June 13, 2022 (rough, incomplete)

Last update August 12

Introductory/overview content forthcoming.

Sub-theme: Who was in control?

Parts

Part 1 - Defended with Artillery - Introducing the Gray Zone Concept, tallying the costs

Part 2: Making a Dead End on the E373 Feb. 25 crossing of the Irpin River on the E373 highway, a truck fleeing, and a truck hiding are stopped with Ukrainian shelling of the bridge, the highway, and behind a store, destroying/disabling some 12+ Russian vehicles, killing several soldiers, damaging 7+ civilian cars, some homes, probably killing some motorists and passers-by. It seems likely this crossing effort was never planned and done by accident

Part 3: Making a Roadblock on Vokzalna Street Feb. 27 incursion into Bucha and Irpin, some 30 vehicles reported, tracked north to south with videos, the ill-fated crossing to Irpin detailed, the column turns back, and is largely destroyed in a Ukrainian attack that destroys 11+ homes, notes on the aftermath, damage control, and spoils including 3+ captured Russian vehicles.

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

Part 5: Bucha both "Liberated" and "Completely Occupied." March 3 ...(forthcoming)

Part 6: Russia Takes over: expansion and events of March 4 and 5 (forthcoming)

Part 7: March 5: Inaugurating a Reign of Terror on Yablunska 

Part 8: the murky middle  ... (forthcoming)

Part 9: The Case for a Secret Ukrainian Presence in Bucha in the second half of March - added July 27. I used to think it was a known fact that Ukrainian forces held half the city by around the 20th, but on closer study ... all I can do is make a case they might have been in there, certain areas and increasingly over time. It's a decent case, but not totally convincing even to me. We'll see if anything helps strengthen the possibility or rule it out.

Part 10: Clashes at the Continent Center - one of the points included above gets a detailed working in its own post - on or around March 18 a video showed clashes in the area of the Continent Center, where Russian forces had based themselves over the preceding day. Some background on the center and violence there from 2/27 March 9, including 2 AFVs obliterated to disastrous effect (at least one civilian fatality) - 8 steep, short-range mortar impacts on the east and south walls could be read to indicate firing from nearby to the east and southeast. That's one place Ukrainian forces were at that time. Just south of that and about an hour earlier, alleged Russians executed up to 4 men at the roundabout - the local filming seems to connect those "Russians" with the later attack on the real Russians to the north.

Further split-ups are possible if too much detail emerges on the way, as happened with parts 2-4 - huge as they are now, combined, the first plan was to cover all that in one post. 

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