Here are among the most important takeaways of the investigation.
A Paratrooper Unit Emerges because the Culprit
While numerous army models had been current in Bucha — and the dying toll throughout town reached over 400 — The Times recognized the 234th Regiment, a paratrooper unit based mostly in town of Pskov in western Russia, as the principle wrongdoer in the Yablunska Street killings. Airborne models like this are thought of among the greatest skilled and outfitted in the Russian army. Evidence of the 234th’s involvement contains army gear, uniform badges, radio chatter and packing slips on munition crates. Military consultants from Janes and the Institute for the Study of War supplied insights about Russian armored autos and their markings in addition to tactical operations seen in the visible proof.
Phone Records as Digital Fingerprints
Residents in Bucha stated that when Russian troopers interrogated them, they typically seized their telephones. Suspecting the troopers may additionally have taken the telephones of victims, our reporters obtained from Ukrainian authorities a database of all calls and messages positioned from the Bucha area to Russia throughout March. As we interviewed victims’ family, we collected their cellphone numbers and checked in the event that they had been in the database. A chilling sample emerged: troopers routinely used the telephones of victims to name house to Russia, typically solely hours after they had been killed.
By analyzing the cellphone numbers dialed by Russian troopers and uncovering social media profiles related to their relations, The Times confirmed the id of two dozen paratroopers as members of the 234th Regiment. In many circumstances, we interviewed their family and spoke to among the troopers themselves, two of whom confirmed they had been in the 234th and served in Bucha. We cross-referenced our findings with private knowledge sourced from leaked and official Russian databases supplied by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit group centered on world safety.
Mothers, Fathers, Children: Ordinary Citizens as Victims
The Times recognized — for the primary time — three dozen people who were killed alongside Yablunska Street in March. We reviewed dying certificates for many of those victims, and the predominant reason for dying was gunshot wounds.
The victims had been residents of Bucha or neighboring cities, from all ages and professions. Among the victims killed by Russian paratroopers had been 52-year-old Tamila Mishchenko and her 14-year-old daughter, Anna, on March 5. They had been amongst 4 ladies fleeing Bucha when Russian troopers fired on their blue minivan.
Nearly all of the victims we recognized on Yablunska Street had been civilians or Ukrainian P.O.W.s. Killing them could possibly be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court and deemed warfare crimes beneath worldwide humanitarian regulation. Because of their systematic and widespread nature, the killings in Bucha may additionally quantity to crimes against humanity. Russia has not joined the I.C.C. and is unlikely to cooperate on any potential future circumstances that contain Russian troopers.
The Killings Were Not Random Acts of Violence
The victims on Yablunska Street didn’t die in the crossfire between Russian and Ukrainian forces, nor had been they mistakenly shot in the fog of warfare. Our investigation reveals that Russian troops deliberately killed them, apparently as a part of a scientific “clearing” operation to safe the trail to the capital. Dozens of civilians had been shot useless. In different circumstances, males suspected of hyperlinks to the Ukrainian army had been rounded up and executed.
Dereliction in the Chain of Command
Lt. Col. Artyom Gorodilov, the regiment commander on the helm of the 234th, oversaw operations of the paratrooper unit in Bucha. Times investigators obtained paperwork that confirmed the decision signal he used when speaking over the radio along with his troops. Security cameras alongside Yablunska Street captured a few of this radio chatter, establishing that Lt. Col. Gorodilov was in command, and two troopers in the 234th who served in Bucha confirmed in interviews that he was there.
After Russian troops retreated from the Kyiv area, Lt. Col. Gorodilov obtained a promotion to colonel in April from the then-head of the airborne forces, Col. Gen. Andrey Serdyukov. The ceremony was held days after the surprising pictures from Bucha emerged.
Neither General Serdyukov nor Colonel Gorodilov’s rapid superior on the time, Maj. Gen. Sergey Chubarykin, has publicly introduced any investigations into the carnage in the city regardless of the worldwide outrage over the photographs. As superior officers, they finally reply for the actions of the forces beneath their command. By neither stopping nor investigating the atrocities in Bucha, they may finally bear accountability for them.
The Russian Ministry of Defense, the Russian Embassy in Washington and Colonel Gorodilov didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Reporting was contributed by Evan Hill, Ishaan Jhaveri and Julian Barnes.
Translations and analysis by Aleksandra Koroleva, Oksana Nesterenko and Milana Mazaeva.