EVENT: Kennan Institute: “Bucha After Russian Occupation: Bucha’s Mayor on the Destruction of His City and Hopes for the Future”
Jan. 30, 2023, 12:30pm – 1:30pm ET
LOCATION: Washington, D.C.
6th Floor, Flom Auditorium, Woodrow Wilson Center and Online
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Bucha was a quiet residential community of some 50,000 people on the outskirts of Kyiv. Russian forces began their assault on the town on February 27 as part of their campaign to encircle Kyiv. By March 31, the Russians were in retreat from Bucha, leaving devastation and mass graves in their wake.
Bucha represents the world’s first definitive look at how the Russian military employs atrocity as a tactic. According to one official count, 458 bodies were recovered from the town’s ruin—with 419 bearing signs of torture, shooting, or other mass trauma.
Anatolii Fedoruk, Bucha’s mayor, went into hiding to coordinate assistance to those few thousand people remaining behind during the Russian occupation. His interviews with international media over the spring and summer of 2022 helped spread the word of Russian war crimes.
The Wilson Center and Ukraine Friends are honored to host Mayor Fedoruk and his team to the Wilson Center to provide an update on the town’s recovery and the status of the investigation of crimes committed during Russia’s occupation of Bucha.