Residents Return to a Charred and Changed Bucha in Ukraine

Ukrainian soldiers inspect a destroyed house, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Bucha, in Kyiv region, Ukraine, April 6, 2022. (Reuters)
Ukrainian soldiers inspect a destroyed house, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Bucha, in Kyiv region, Ukraine, April 6, 2022. (Reuters)
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Residents Return to a Charred and Changed Bucha in Ukraine

Ukrainian soldiers inspect a destroyed house, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Bucha, in Kyiv region, Ukraine, April 6, 2022. (Reuters)
Ukrainian soldiers inspect a destroyed house, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Bucha, in Kyiv region, Ukraine, April 6, 2022. (Reuters)

Before the war in Ukraine, Bohdan Zubchuk's job as a community police officer involved patrolling the quiet streets of Bucha outside Kyiv and dealing with petty crime, while handling minor complaints from residents.

Walking down a street where the bodies of multiple victims were found after Russian troops retreated late last month, the 29-year-old said his hometown and his job would never be the same.

"We will never forget everything we saw here, this will stay with us for our whole lives," he said.

The town became known around the world after images emerged of dead civilians in the streets last week, triggering an international outcry.

Since the Russians left, Zubchuk said he and his fellow community police officers have been tasked with assisting traumatized survivors with everything from receiving humanitarian aid to checking for unexploded ordnance around town.

Ukrainian officials say hundreds of civilians have been found dead since the Russians' withdrawal. The deputy mayor of Bucha has said 360 civilians were killed during the Russian occupation. Reuters could not independently verify those figures.

Russia, which has repeatedly denied targeting civilians since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, has called the allegations that Russian forces executed civilians in Bucha while they occupied the town a "monstrous forgery" aimed at denigrating the Russian army.

Reuters has witnessed the remains of five victims in Bucha who were shot through the head. One had his hands tied behind his back. Another his feet tied. Reuters has not been able to independently determine who was responsible.

By Saturday, local workers and residents had already removed the bodies from the street, but there were still patches of ash and charred cement left behind from shelling.

"Every time I patrol this street I'll be thinking back about what happened here," Zubchuk said.

On Friday, forensic investigators began the exhumation of remains from a mass grave in Bucha, carefully lifting bodies out of a muddy trench to examine and identify them.

In the weeks following the arrival of Russian forces in Bucha, Zubchuk said he and his fellow officers hid in basements and continued working until they fled the city with their families.

Zubchuk said Russian soldiers were scouring the town for local police officers and men with military experience during the occupation.

An 'island' of calm

Elsewhere in Bucha on Saturday, volunteers in bright vests swept up debris and workers in hard hats removed what remained of destroyed Russian tanks with heavy cranes.

Moscow calls the war a "special operation" to demilitarize and "denazify" its neighbor. Ukraine and its allies say this is a baseless pretext for war.

Valerie Lysenko was one of many residents who returned to Bucha to see the damage first hand. Lysenko said she fled her hometown a little over a week after Russian troops rolled into Bucha.

Before the war Lysenko said she was always inviting her friends to visit Bucha, telling them it was an "island" of calm outside of Kyiv with beautiful parks and great infrastructure.

Now, the name of her town had become synonymous with war and the suffering of civilians.

"The only thing they know (of Bucha) is people dead, people with their hands tied, people tortured, murdered and this just breaks my heart," she said.

"If I say I'm in pain it's only one percent of what I'm feeling," she said.



Gazans’ Daily Struggle for Water After Deadly Israeli Strike

 Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
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Gazans’ Daily Struggle for Water After Deadly Israeli Strike

 Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)

The al-Manasra family rarely get enough water for both drinking and washing after their daily trudge to a Gaza distribution point like the one where eight people were killed on Sunday in a strike that Israel's military said had missed its target.

Living in a tent camp by the ruins of a smashed concrete building in Gaza City, the family say their children are already suffering from diarrhea and skin maladies and from the lack of clean water, and they fear worse to come.

"There's no water, our children have been infected with scabies, there are no hospitals to go to and no medications," said Akram Manasra, 51.

He had set off on Monday for a local water tap with three of his daughters, each of them carrying two heavy plastic containers in Gaza's blazing summer heat, but they only managed to fill two - barely enough for the family of 10.

Gaza's lack of clean water after 21 months of war and four months of Israeli blockade is already having "devastating impacts on public health" the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said in a report this month.

For people queuing at a water distribution point on Sunday it was fatal. A missile that Israel said had targeted fighters but malfunctioned hit a queue of people waiting to collect water at the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Israel's blockade of fuel along with the difficulty in accessing wells and desalination plants in zones controlled by the Israeli military is severely constraining water, sanitation and hygiene services according to OCHA.

Fuel shortages have also hit waste and sewage services, risking more contamination of the tiny, crowded territory's dwindling water supply, and diseases causing diarrhea and jaundice are spreading among people crammed into shelters and weakened by hunger.

"If electricity was allowed to desalination plants the problem of a lethal lack of water, which is what's becoming the situation now in Gaza, would be changed within 24 hours," said James Elder, the spokesperson for the UN's children's agency UNICEF.

"What possible reason can there be for denying of a legitimate amount of water that a family needs?" he added.

COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last week, an Israeli military official said that Israel was allowing sufficient fuel into Gaza but that its distribution around the enclave was not under Israel's purview.

THIRSTY AND DIRTY

For the Manasra family, like others in Gaza, the daily toil of finding water is exhausting and often fruitless.

Inside their tent the family tries to maintain hygiene by sweeping. But there is no water for proper cleaning and sometimes they are unable to wash dishes from their meager meals for several days at a time.

Manasra sat in the tent and showed how one of his young daughters had angry red marks across her back from what he said a doctor had told them was a skin infection caused by the lack of clean water.

They maintain a strict regimen of water use by priority.

After pouring their two containers of water from the distribution point into a broken plastic water butt by their tent, they use it to clean themselves from the tap, using their hands to spoon it over their heads and bodies.

Water that runs off into the basin underneath is then used for dishes and after that - now grey and dirty - for clothes.

"How is this going to be enough for 10 people? For the showering, washing, dish washing, and the washing of the covers. It's been three months; we haven't washed the covers, and the weather is hot," Manasra said.

His wife, Umm Khaled, sat washing clothes in a tiny puddle of water at the bottom of a bucket - all that was left after the more urgent requirements of drinking and cooking.

"My daughter was very sick from the heat rash and the scabies. I went to several doctors for her and they prescribed many medications. Two of my children yesterday, one had diarrhea and vomiting and the other had fever and infections from the dirty water," she said.