Four years ago this week, Ukrainian and international journalists walked the streets of Bucha and found bodies in the road. Some had their hands bound. Some had been shot at close range. Others had disappeared entirely — their fates still unknown.
I was there shortly after the Russians were driven out. I will always be a witness to the Russian terror here in Ukraine and this was just the one of the catastrophes by the terrorist nation.
A year ago on Sunday, March 30, 2025, Bucha held its annual commemoration ceremony at the memorial to the 561 civilians killed during the Russian occupation of their city. I attended. I am on the road again to do the same.
The speeches were measured but unsparing. Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk stood before families who had lost parents, spouses, children — people who, in his words, “had so much still to do, to say, to feel, to live.” He named the number again: 561. Not a statistic. A count, deliberately repeated so no one could round it down.
“This cannot be forgotten,” Fedoruk said, “and this cannot be forgiven.”
Oleksandr Kornienko, First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada — who grew up in this community — spoke directly to a difficult reality: that three years on, Bucha must still be explained to the world. That he and his parliamentary colleagues have told this story to prime ministers and parliament speakers hundreds of times, and will keep telling it. He looked at children in the crowd — children under ten, born after the full-scale invasion began — and said what everyone present already understood: this war is not history for them. It is the only world they have known.
The Head of Kyiv Oblast Administration, Mykola Kalashnyk, was blunt about the aggressor’s intent: “He deliberately destroys our nation. He wished to annihilate our nationality.” The framing was not rhetorical. It was a statement about what Russia attempted in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion, in this suburb northwest of Kyiv that was supposed to fall in three days.
It did not fall. That is why there is a ceremony at all.
Archbishop Lavrentiy offered the theological counterweight — the language of memory as moral obligation, of prayer as a form of resistance. He invoked Chornobyl: another Ukrainian word that the world came to know only through catastrophe. “Wherever we are,” he said, “all know the word Bucha.” He did not say this with pride. He said it with grief.
The ceremony closed with the Orthodox memorial service, the hymn Boże Velykyi, Yedynyi — “God, the Great and Only” — and the laying of flowers and candles at the memorial wall, where photographs of the dead are embedded in stone.
What struck me, standing there, was the discipline of the grief. No one performed it. The families stood quietly. The officials said the necessary things without embellishment. The church prayed. The choir sang.
The question that hangs over Bucha — and over every similar ceremony in Ukraine — is whether the world’s attention will hold. Whether the word Bucha will mean, in ten years, what it should mean: a documented atrocity, prosecuted, with perpetrators named and sentenced. Or whether it will fade into the long catalog of post-Cold War horrors that the civilized world mourned, memorialized, and ultimately left unpunished.
The people standing at that memorial know which outcome they fear more.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Let us remember in shared prayer all those whose lives were innocently taken by Russian aggression, and all those who gave their lives in the struggle for Ukraine. A moment of silence.
Eternal memory. Deep respect and glory that will live forever.
Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk (Bucha): Good day, dear community, dear families of the fallen. Three years have passed since Bucha felt hope after a month that became an eternity of battle. Spring 2022 is forever carved in our memory as a black page we have no right to turn. Together with liberation, the truth appeared before the world — a truth that stunned humanity with its cruelty. The truth about mass killings of civilians, about crimes that have no justification and no statute of limitations.
The occupiers left a cruel, bloody mark. They tore from life 561 civilian residents of our community. We remember each one: their name, their voice, their fate — those who had so much still to do, to say, to feel, to live.
This memorial has become a place of mourning, of memory, of deep respect for each one who perished in those tragic days. We bow our heads before all the innocent victims whose fate was cut short simply because they were Ukrainians, living on their own land, in their own homes. This cannot be forgotten and cannot be forgiven.
We all seek justice, which is why every day, in every voice and every testimony, we remind the world of the crimes committed on our land — the terrible truth that cannot remain unpunished. Let their memory live in our struggle for truth, for freedom, for the future.
But today is not only about pain. It is also about resilience, about the strength of spirit with which our Bucha community stood firm, about the unity that became our foundation in the darkest moment. About the faith that truth will prevail. And every crime will be proven and punished.
Eternal memory to the fallen. Honor and glory to all who defended and continue to defend Ukraine. Long live Bucha, long live Ukraine — free, strong, unbroken.
First Deputy Speaker, Verkhovna Rada — Oleksandr Kornienko:
Dear community, dear compatriots — first, on behalf of the Verkhovna Rada and the people we represent, our sincere condolences. Our memory is with all those who fell in Bucha, and also in other towns of Kyiv Oblast, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia — everywhere the terrible hand of the Russian occupier brought countless victims among our fellow citizens.
I look at our youth and I see many children younger than 10 years old. That means they were not born before the start of the war.
Hundreds of times, my colleagues and I — to speakers of parliaments, to presidents, to prime ministers, to anyone — have spoken about the Bucha tragedy. We speak of it, we will keep speaking of it. Tomorrow there will be many colleagues here. We do this with one goal: so that this terrible war, this terrible tragedy, will never be forgotten; so that the world will never return to a normal life together with Russia; so that there will never be forgiveness for them. Because the Ukrainian people will never forgive, and the civilized world must remember this too.
Bucha, unfortunately for those of us who grew up here as I did, has become this symbol. But it is thanks to the unity and resilience of Bucha’s residents and the people of Kyiv Oblast that we remember how, in many ways, the rapid stopping of the enemy happened exactly where it was most needed.
Once again, our sincere condolences to the families of the fallen. Gratitude to the city and regional authorities for what you do to ensure that Bucha continues to be a center of attention on the question of Russian Federation accountability. Thank you.
Head of Kyiv Oblast State Administration — Mykola Kalashnyk:
Dear defenders, dear families of the fallen, entire Bucha community — you are a symbol of indestructibility, strength of spirit, resilience. You are an example for the entire civilized world of national strength and spirit, which did not allow the enemy to capture and hold your city, your community, our region, and our entire country. Their plans failed — thanks to unity, solidarity, and faith in a bright future.
We must remember the feat of each one who laid their life on the altar of our independence, territorial integrity, and statehood. We see the terrible consequences of the aggressor. He deliberately destroys our nation. He wished to annihilate our nationality — and thanks to the strength of spirit, he has not succeeded and will not succeed. We must continue to appeal to the entire civilized world to help, to restrain, and to defeat. Thank you that we are together. And so it will always be.
Archbishop Lavrentiy:
The name of Bucha has become known throughout the world. As once Chornobyl, so now the Bucha community. Wherever we are, in whatever country of the world, all know the word Bucha. Because here occurred the tragedy when Cain stepped forward — for they consider themselves our brothers. And this Cain shot and tortured his brothers, all those memorialized here, those still missing, whose bodies cannot be found.
This memorial must remind us that we were guilty only of being Ukrainian. Guilty only of being in someone’s way on this land because their own land is not enough for them.
Why have we gathered in such numbers? Because we must always remember these days. Only three years have passed. But if we forget these fallen, these innocent victims, then we ourselves will have no future. Because those of us still living must pray for those who are no longer among us — those who were killed and tortured, and who lie in our Ukrainian earth.
The church always prays. And it is no wonder that this memorial stands near a church, near a temple where prayers to God will always rise — asking the Lord’s forgiveness for the sins of those who perished.
God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. And always these souls will be here with us, helping us to defeat this enemy. They say there is no justice on earth. But we must ensure that every enemy who set foot on our land receives punishment — if not here on earth, then before God. We believe this and we pray for it.
We do not wish evil upon all, but we do wish retribution for what they did here, on this land. And may the merciful Lord grant all those who stand here now — young, beautiful children, the future of our nation — may He grant that Ukraine lives, will live, and that this is our future. Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory to Ukraine!
[Collective prayer, hymn “God, the Great and Only” (Боже великий, єдиний), flower and candle laying ceremony, Orthodox memorial service follow.]
Chris Sampson is Editor-in-Chief of NatSecMedia and host of The Wire Tap on Substack. He has been based in Kyiv since January 31, 2022.
