Bucha Begins to Tell Its Horror Stories

In an extensive article on what it calls "Bucha's month of terror," the New York Times reports on the horrors experienced in the Ukraine city as Russian troops occupied it. Among those: unimaginable sexual violence. In one case reported by Ukraine’s official ombudswoman for human rights, women and girls were held captive in the basement of a house for 25 days—and nine of them were impregnated. She says the girls and women ages 14 to 24 were "systematically" raped. "Russian soldiers told them they would rape them to the point where they wouldn’t want sexual contact with any man, to prevent them from having Ukrainian children," she tells the BBC.

• The Times' piece includes many more horrifying stories, including a man whose son was shot on the street as they walked together and suffered the whole night before dying the following morning, and the bodies of five members of a family found burned. Read the full piece here.
• The BBC piece is similarly difficult to read, including the story of a husband shot dead as he tried to protect his wife, who was raped repeatedly under threat that her young son would be harmed if she resisted. When the troops finally left, they burned the family's home down and shot their dogs. Read the full piece here.

(More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)