On the 25th of February 2025 Mykhayilyna Skoryk-Shkarivska- then the deputy mayor of Bucha-was due for a monthly budget meeting of the local council. But by 7am councillors assembled to discuss the terrifying news overnight Russia had started its invasion of Ukraine – what Putin was declaring was a ‘Special Operation.’ By the 27th the normally quiet, residential city of Bucha became the epicentre of Russia’s full territorial conquest of Ukraine, with its initial plan overthrow and occupy the capital, Kyiv. Bucha and close-by neighbourhood of Irpin presented to the world the first sight of the …