Ukraine: Russians Turn Children's Camp Into Execution Camp

Before the war, Camp Radiant was a popular get-away spot in Bucha and was once a kid's summertime camp. Now, Ukrainian authorities treat it as a crime scene, believing it has become an execution site. Russian soldiers set up a military camp in the children's camp.

Initial investigations revealed that five Ukrainian men were killed in the basement of Camp Radiant by the Russian soldiers. Investigators found traces of execution and military rations left by the Russian soldiers, BBC News reports.

Residents shot in the streets

In March, Bucha became the epicenter of intense fighting around Kyiv. When the Russian troops withdrew, Ukrainian authorities found scenes that would shock the world. There were bodies of residents in the streets where Russian soldiers shot them.

Moscow says that the killings were staged. Ukrainian authorities are now busy collecting hard evidence on territory that is now back under their control. They are running against time in case Putin drops a bomb and destroys all the proof, Kyiv regional police chief Andrii Niebytov said.

Also in the evidence is a field full of civilian cars peppered with bullets if a family tried to flee. One car even had a white cloth at the window, which passengers hung to tell the soldiers that its occupants were no threat.

As per Daily Star, around 1,000 men, women, and children were slaughtered in Bucha, and hundreds of bodies were found underneath the Camp Radiant.

Search for missing brother

One of those killed and whose body was found in Camp Radiant was Volodymyr Boichenko. He was from Hostomel, a community near Bucha. When her sister decided to flee before the Russian soldiers came, she asked Volodymyr to join her. But her brother refused, as he wanted to stay and help. He spent days searching for food and water in Hostomel to bring to neighbors and children trapped in their cellars by the constant shelling and Russian airstrikes. Volodymyr would phone his family from time to time to assure them that he was safe. Her sister, Aliona, would wait nervously for the calls because his brother had to risk finding an area with a signal to communicate with them. When supplies were running out, Aliona asked her brother to escape. However, roads were blocked by then, Romania postsen reports.

On March 8, his brother called her, saying not to worry about him, and said, "I really love you." Aliona noted the fear in his voice. She said it was his last call. Since then, Aliona and her family spent weeks calling hospitals and morgues to find his brother's body. When she was sent a photograph to identify his brother, he was sure it was him. Volodymyr was one of the men found crouching on their knees, head down and hands tied behind their backs.

After Volodymyr Boichenko was found in a mass grave in a children's camp, he was transferred under a cherry blossom in the old Bucha cemetery.

Aliona says that she saw her brother's face in her dream after the funeral as if comforting her. His grave did not have a date when he died. They may never know unless his killers are found and brought to justice.