Decomposed human bodies, stuck on the road. Charred bodies, thrown by the blast from the wreckage that once was a car. People burneded, frozen in the position in which they were hit by the weapons of the enemy, exactly when they were trying to flee from Irpin. Stray dogs, some starving, others sated after tearing at corpses. On the Kyiv – Zhytomyr highway in Ukraine, there was a massacre in the spring of 2022.

The Russian army shot at everything that was alive. The victims were Ukrainians trying to flee to other localities or just to get water and food for their children. A few kilometers further, journalists Viorica Tataru and Andrei Captarenco also discovered the Russian tanks that had killed civilians on the highway: they were already destroyed by the Ukrainian army.

All about this – in the report “Ukraine Resists”. But to watch itto the end, you must have a strong stomach.

IRPIN. HUMAN REMAINS BURIED ON THE STREET

In Irpin, the two journalists came across three crosses placed next to an apartment building staircase. It’s not a cemetery, yet here lie buried three people. “A mother with her 12-year-old child who were caught directly under bombardment. They had their documents with them, which is why we know their names. Next to her is buried a man, whom we could not identify because he was torn…to pieces,” says Alexandr from Irpin. For a month, he has been living in a basement with his wife and three other elderly neighbors.

“We stayed here throughout the explosions. Many things were erased from our minds so we wouldn’t remember this pain. In the first days we ate t moldy bread. We all huddled together when they were bombing and we prayed into another while they were shelling and we were praying. We had to keep rquiet, so that they wouldn’t find out we were here. We didn’t even go to the toilet.

We stayed in the center of the room; it was safer that way. We didn’t see any other people, we lived like hermits. Outside there was war. Then we consumed all provisions, saving water, bread. By March 5, most residents had left here, but we don’t know how they got there. Many cars remained bombed on the Kyiv – Zhytomyr route,” says Marina, in the filmed interview.

She is convinced that soon the Russians will be driven out, the city will be rebuilt, and life, as she knew it until now, will continue.

SHEVCHENKOVO, THE PLACE WHERE EVERY DAY CAN BE THE LAST

Explosions are still heard in Shevchenkovo. “They are ours,” says a local. “And yet, let’s leave.” Nikolai is one of the Ukrainians who risks his life daily, driving through minefields to bring supplies to those trapped in their homes. Many refused to leave. Next to the âthe ruins of a house, Nikolai shows the camera a mutilated body, covered in blood, draped with a piece ofclothing: “Here is our neighbor, he was a good man. But today a bomb fell and the man is no more.”

“Here every day can be the last,” says another local. He holds an unexploded mine in his hand, freshly thrown into his yard by the enemy. “We have work to do. This is our country. And we cannot leave”.

The sequence with Nikolai in the car, speeding from one village to another, on adrenaline, without fear, loaded with supplies, is also memorable. He explains the survival technique survival rate fhe uses: “The faster we go speedă , the more our chances increase of not being hit by shrapnelle pieces. That’s why we are driving now fast now, because they are bombing towards the city of Mykolaiv. It is extremely dangerous here. Insane danger”.

KYIV. MUSIC IN THE RUINS

A scene of absurd theater: amidst the ruins under bombs, Finnish Lucas Stashevsky plays the double bass as if he were on a grand stage. This is how he resists.

Behind him Lucas, half of a building was pulverized. The other half remained standing, without walls. If you look, you can see directly into people’s apartments. Here the two journalists discovered Pavel and Alexandr, two elderly men.

Andrei Captarenco: “Good day, if one can say so!”

Alexandr: “Today is good, compared to the day the missile fell on us. I had a bed here and I was sleeping. When everything exploded, splinters and glass started flying, I thought we would die.”

Pavel: “I served in the military for 24 years in the Far East (editor’s note: Russian Maritime Fleet). Now our former comrades have bombed us.”

HOW BUCHA WENT FROM VILLAGE TO CEMETERY

Bucha is the locality that would shock the entire world. Following the Russian army, a massacre remained that then spread across social media worldwide.

By April 2022, 400 dead had been exhumed from mass graves, to be identified and reburied Christianly.

Mikhail, a local from Bucha: “Russian soldiers entered my garage, without any warning. I told them: Guys, do you have any common sense? They said they didn’t know they would fight Ukraine. Well, how can you not know if you received weapons and bullets? Can’t you read that these are Ukrainian villages? Who are you going to fight, the old women or me? One was talking to me, and the other had the barrel of the gun pointed at me.”

The testimony of another local: “In Bucha, those who broke into people’s homes were the Chechens. They ransacked everything. They were looking for weapons”.

NOVOSELIVKA OR “THE CATACLYSM” WITH A VILLAGE NAME

The locality of Novoselivka was bombed until almost nothing was left of it. After the rain of rockets, survivors came to rummage through the ruins. They do not want to abandon their village. They chose to stay and rebuild.

A local: “Here there were more than 10 rockets, they launched them one by one”.

“The house collapsed and this man was torn to pieces. Right next to our house. I ran, I couldn’t bear to see such a thing”

An old woman crying: “Not even animals act like this!”.

“I have two brothers and nephews in Russia, but what they did here is terrible. My friend’s brother called her from Russia and told her that Putin came to us to rid the country of <<Banderites>>” and <<Nazis>>”.

Although made three years ago, the conclusion of the report “Ukraine Resists”, is just as valid today.

And it is stated at the end of the material, through the voice of journalist Andrei Captarenco: “The consequences of this war are not yet known. But as long as Ukraine resists, we also resist”.