‘Method to the violence’: Dogged investigation and groundbreaking visuals document Bucha ‘cleansing’
In this image from March 4, 2022, surveillance video provided by the Ukrainian government, Russian troops lead nine men at gunpoint to their headquarters at 144 Yablunska St. in Bucha, Ukraine, in a March 4, 2022 image from surveillance video provided by the Ukrainian government. The men would be tortured and executed as part of what the Russians called “zachistka” – cleansing. The Russian occupiers hunted people on lists prepared by their intelligence services and went door to door to identify and neutralize potential threats. (Ukrainian government via AP)
By Erika Kinetz, Oleksandr Stashevskyi, Vasilisa Stepanenko, Adam Pemble, Allen Breed, Michael Biesecker, Jeannie Ohm and Dario Lopez
AP Brussels-based investigative reporter Erika Kinetz spent months investigating Russian war crimes in Ukraine, and worked to unearth details of the atrocities in Bucha. Her breakthrough came when a source agreed to give her a hard drive loaded with terabytes of surveillance video from the streets of the Kyiv suburb. Shortly after that, she also obtained thousands of audio files of Russian soldiers calling friends and relatives back home, in which they admitted to “zachistka” — cleansing — killing civilians under orders from their leaders.
Video journalist Adam Pemble, who was on assignment in Ukraine, hand carried the hard drive to Prague, rented a temporary office with a strong internet connection and uploaded 80,000 video files. AP digital partner SITU Research, a New York-based visual investigations firm, indexed the files, then Pemble, multiformat journalist Allen Breed and other AP colleagues began the painstaking process of reviewing all the footage, which often showed nothing but driving rain or stray dogs — but also included evidence of Russian war crimes.
Using geolocation techniques, Washington-based investigative journalist Michael Biesecker analyzed some of the key images and was able to pin down the location of the cameras. He also added the newly documented deaths to AP’s War Crimes Watch Ukraine web fixture. Kinetz,meanwhile,directed several translators who transcribed the intercepted Russian phone calls. The Dossier Center,a London-based investigative group funded by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky,verified the identity of soldiers whose phone calls were intercepted by the Ukrainian government.
The evidence collected,combined with interviews,videos and photos assembled over months by Kinetz,video journalist Oleksandr “Sasha” Stashevskyi and producer Vasilisa Stepanenko,told the chilling tale of the fall of Bucha and how,over the month that followed,Russian occupiers terrorized the local population with raids, torture and summary executions.
Lifeless bodies of men, some with their hands bound behind their backs, lie on the ground in Bucha, Ukraine, April 3, 2022. Russian soldiers picked up these men on March 4, 2022, as they swept the streets of Bucha to identify and neutralize potential threats. Ukrainian prosecutors now say they know who was responsible for the violence that day: Soldiers from the 76th Guards Airborne Assault Division, who ultimately reported up to Col. Gen. Alexander Chaiko, a man known for his brutality as leader of Russia’s troops in Syria. – AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
A guard walks past the entrance of 144 Yablunska St. in Bucha, Ukraine, April 29, 2022. The office building was used as a bomb shelter before Russians took it over as a headquarters. They used it for interrogations, set up a field hospital and held civilians who didn’t pose a threat in the basement. They also tortured and killed civilians at the site. More than a dozen bodies were found around the building when Russian forces retreated after their month-long occupation. – AP Photo / Erika Kinetz
Dmytro Chaplyhin, right, 20, poses with a friend, in an undated photo provided by his family. Russian soldiers found images of Russian tanks on Chaplyhin’s phone during a March 4, 2022, sweep of Bucha, Ukraine. They accused him of being a spotter and killed him at their headquarters at 144 Yablunska St. – Vlasenko family via AP
Dmytro Chaplyhin, 20, a store clerk who everyone called Dima, takes a selfie in an undated photo provided by his family. Chaplyhin was one of at least nine men Russian soldiers picked up during a March 4, 2022 sweep of Bucha, Ukraine, and executed at their headquarters at 144 Yablunska St. – Vlasenko family via AP
The body of Dmytro Chaplyhin, called Dima, lies on the ground, April 4, 2022, identified by a neighbor after Chaplyhin was killed at 144 Yablunska St., a complex Russian troops used as a headquarters in Bucha, Ukraine. Russian soldiers found images of Russian tanks on Chaplyhin’s phone and accused him of being a spotter helping the Ukrainian military. – AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
A neighbor comforts Natalia Vlasenko, whose husband, Pavlo Vlasenko, and grandson, Dmytro Chaplyhin, called Dima, were killed by Russian forces, as she cries in her garden in Bucha, Ukraine, April 4, 2022. Russian soldiers picked up her grandson during a March 4 sweep, accused him of being a spotter helping the Ukrainian military and brought him to their headquarters at 144 Yablunska St. – AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
The site where Natalia Vlasenko buried her husband, Pavlo Vlasenko, under a section of a fence in her yard, shown April 4, 2022 in Bucha, Ukraine. Russian soldiers beat Pavlo Vlasenko to death, then set his body on fire. Days after Vlasenko buried her husband, she found the body of her grandson, Dmytro Chaplyhin, known as Dima, at a Russian headquarters at 144 Yablunska St. He was one of at least nine men Russian soldiers picked up during a March 4 sweep and later executed. – AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
Ira Gavriluk holds her cat as she walks beside the bodies of her husband, brother and another man who were killed outside her home in Bucha, Ukraine, April 4, 2022. Russian soldiers hunted people on lists prepared by their intelligence services and went door to door to identify and neutralize potential threats. – AP Photo / Felipe Dana
A dog stands besid to the body of an elderly woman killed inside a house in Bucha, Ukraine, April 5, 2022. – AP Photo / Felipe Dana
The lifeless body of a man with his hands bound behind his back lies on the ground in Bucha, Ukraine, April 3, 2022. – AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
Ivan Skyba poses for a photo in Katowice, Poland, July 16, 2022. Skyba, a taxi driver, volunteered at a Ukrainian checkpoint in Bucha, Ukraine. Russian soldiers captured Skyba and other volunteers during a March 4 sweep and took them at gunpoint to their headquarters at 144 Yablunska Street. Skyba was tortured and narrowly survived an execution by pretending to be dead. – AP Photo / Erika Kinetz
The basement of the office building at 144 Yablunska St., where civilians were held by Russian forces in Bucha, Ukraine, is shown April 29, 2022. Children cried here. Adults prayed. The only toilet was broken. The smell of human waste was overpowering. Elsewhere at the site, civilians were tortured and killed. – AP Photo / Erika Kinetz
The lifeless body of a man lies on the ground in Bucha, Ukraine, April 3, 2022. In intercepted phone conversations, Russian soldiers called their sweeps of Bucha and other towns outside Kyiv “zachistka” – cleansing — killing civilians under orders from their leaders. – AP Photo / Vadim Ghirda
Senior video producer Jeannie Ohm collaborated with SITU — which created a 3D digital model of Bucha drawn from data collected by drones flown over Bucha this spring — producing a video that layers AP footage,surveillance video and intercepted phone calls into an immersive experience narrated by Kinetz,taking readers into the city,witness to the horrors on the ground.
Digital storytelling producer Dario Lopez wove all the elements — text,photos, video and audio — into a riveting presentation.
No other news organization has conducted such a deep and revealing analysis of the atrocities in Bucha. The package resonated: The story had more than 120,000 pageviews and the top score for reader engagement on AP News,while the YouTube video has had more than 200,000 views.
For their meticulous,innovative work and their collaboration across formats and continents,the team of Kinetz,Stepanenko,Stashevskyi,Pemble,Breed,Biesecker, Ohm and Lopez is AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.
