Yura Nechyporenko.Photo: Emilio Morenatti/AP

Yura Nechyporenko, 15, holds the hoodie he was wearing the day a Russian soldier tried to kill him in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. His father was killed, and now his family seeks justice. The hoodie, bloodied at the elbow where a bullet had pierced him, is now the centerpiece of the family’s search for justice. Yura’s mother, Alla, insisted that it not be thrown away.

Yura Nechyporenko, 15, kisses the pictures of his father Ruslan Nechyporenko in front of his uncle Andriy Nechyporenko, at the cemetery in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, April 21, 2022. The teen survived an attempted killing by Russian soldiers while his father was killed, and now his family seeks justice.

Though the two held their hands up in surrender, the soldier fired at them both, hitting Yura near his hand and elbow. His father, meanwhile, was also shot. Yura “listened to his father die” as he lay on the asphalt beside him, theAPreports.

Once the soldier left, Yura ran for his life, seeking shelter in the basement of a school where his mother worked.

But the tragedy wasn’t over yet, with Yura describing to the AP how he and his grandmother went back to the scene of the crime, to collect Ruslan’s body.

Yura, meanwhile, was unable to get help for his injuries (due to the Russian invasion, both the police and ambulance service told the family they could no longer service the area).

Yura Nechyporenko, 15, hugs his uncle Andriy Nechyporenko next to the grave of his father Ruslan Nechyporenko at the cemetery in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday, April 25, 2022. The teen survived an attempted killing by Russian soldiers while his father was killed, and now his family seeks justice.

So the next day, the family left Bucha via an evacuation corridor — but danger would emerge again, when Russian soldiers asked why Yura wore a makeshift sling.

“I felt everything collapse inside me,” she told the AP. “I thought they would shoot us all.”

In the end, the soldiers let the family pass.

But many in Bucha never got out.

According to the AP, more than 1,000 bodies have been found in Bucha and neighboring areas since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in late February.

The New York Timesreports that, of pre-war Bucha’s approximately 40,000 residents, only about 4,000 remain. A Bucha coroner and his colleagues reportedlycollected more than 100 bodies in the past several weeks, the majority of which were civilians who had died as a result of being shot or hit with shrapnel.

Russian soldiers have beenaccused of raping, torturing and killing hundreds of civiliansin the town, which resorted to burying the dead in a mass grave because the morgue there was without electricity for refrigeration.

Petros Giannakouris/AP

Yura Nechyporenko, 15, places a chocolate at the grave of his father Ruslan Nechyporenko at the cemetery in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, April 21, 2022. The teen survived an attempted killing by Russian soldiers while his father was killed, and now his family seeks justice.

More than 5.5 million have fled the country as refugees — and half are children,according to the United Nations. Millions more have been displaced inside Ukraine.

With NATO forces amassed in the region, various countries are offering aid or military support to the resistance. Ukraine’s PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyyhas called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.

Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.

“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,“he told the European Unionin a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”

source: people.com