04.05.2022
Bucha, Kyiv region
Russian soldiers broke into the house of a Ukrainian family, demanding to tell them where the "Nazis" were and accusing the Ukrainians of starting the war.
They threw a grenade through the window, which started an enormous fire. She and Oleh were taken outside at gunpoint. Oleh was taken into the street. They took off his shirt. They made him kneel. The next thing Iryna remembers is running to Oleh’s side, plunging to the ground, grabbing his hands, seeing blood spurt from his ears and feeling a wild rage explode out of her.
“Shoot me!” she screamed at the Russian soldiers standing coolly above her.
“Shoot me! Come on! Come on!" she screamed.
A Russian commander leveled his gun at her chest three times. But he never pulled the trigger.
Iryna Abramova’s story is Bucha’s story. It is about heartbreak, bloodshed and, most of all, loss.
Source: New York Times
