In the devastated streets of Bucha, the scene of infamous massacres last year, reconstruction is underway.
And despite the tragedy that unfolded here, the Ukrainian city has now opened its doors to refugees from the country’s war-torn regions.
One temporary housing unit hosts several dozen people from eastern Ukraine. A humanitarian organisation was delivering food on the day of Euronews’ visit.
Tetyana is the coordinator of the small community. She fled the Donetsk region. As part of an organisation defending political prisoners, she is fighting to save her husband’s life.
“My home has been under occupation since 2014. In 2017, when we wanted to keep our Ukrainian citizenship while living in a territory under occupation, my husband was kidnapped,” she said.
“He’s been in captivity for 6 years now. He survived a concentration camp called ‘Izolyaciya’ where he stayed for 10 months. He was subjected to inhumane torture.
“This badly affected his health condition. He had broken ribs and burned organs as a result of torture with electricity” Tetyana continued.
“No medical help or medicines are provided. Some prisoners are bedridden, lying in their own excrement. Others try to help those who cannot move, 75-year-old people.
“There’s a woman in a very bad state. And the Russian Federation refuses to set these people free. We want the whole world to help us, and involve all the media, to cry out against these grave violations of the Geneva Convention. It’s worse than fascism, what’s happening right now, in the 21st century, in the middle of Europe” Tetyana concluded.
The Council of Europe has voiced alarm on the detention conditions of dozens of Ukrainian citizens in Russia and Crimea since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014.
A situation that is added to the alleged war crimes committed since the start of the all-out invasion of Ukraine a year ago.
Last April, some 10.000 cases of war crimes against civilians were recorded in Ukraine. Less than a year later, more than 65.000 cases are under investigation.
Watch the report from Bucha in the video player above.
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