Before the war in Ukraine, Bohdan Zubchuk's job as a community police officer involved patrolling the quiet streets of Bucha, outside Kyiv, dealing with petty crime while dealing with minor complaints from residents.
Walking down the street where the bodies of multiple victims were found after Russian troops withdrew late last month, the 29-year-old said his hometown and work would never be the same.
"We will never forget everything we saw here, this will stay with us for the rest of our lives," he said, according to Reuters.
The city became famous around the world after pictures of dead civilians appeared on the streets last Sunday, sparking an international outcry.
Since the Russians left, Zubchuk said he and his fellow community police officers have been tasked with helping traumatized survivors with everything from receiving humanitarian aid to checking for unexploded ordnance around town.
Ukrainian officials say hundreds of civilians have been found dead since the Russian withdrawal. The deputy mayor of Buča said that 360 civilians were killed during the Russian occupation. Reuters could not independently verify the figures.
Russia, which has repeatedly denied targeting civilians since invading Ukraine on February 24, has called allegations that Russian forces executed civilians in Bucha while they occupied the city a "monstrous fabrication" aimed at smearing the Russian military.
Reuters witnessed the remains of five victims in Buca who were shot in the head. Once the hands were tied behind the back. The legs of the other were tied. Reuters could not determine who was responsible.
By Saturday, local workers and residents had already removed the bodies from the street, but patches of ash and charred cement from the shelling still remained.
"Every time I patrol this street, I will remember what happened here," said Zubchuk.
Forensic experts began exhuming the remains from the mass grave in Buca on Friday, carefully pulling the bodies out of the muddy trench to examine and identify them.
In the weeks after Russian forces arrived in Buca, Zubchuk said he and his fellow officers hid in basements and continued to work until they fled the city with their families.
Zubchuk said that during the occupation, Russian soldiers searched the city for local police officers and people with military experience.
Elsewhere in Buca on Saturday, volunteers in bright vests swept away the debris and workers used heavy cranes to remove what remained of the destroyed Russian tanks.
Moscow calls the war a "special operation" to demilitarize and "denazify" its neighbor. Ukraine and its allies say this is a baseless pretext for war.
Valeri Lysenko was one of the many residents who returned to Buča to see the damage firsthand. Lysenko said she fled her hometown just over a week after Russian troops entered Buca.
Before the war, Lysenko said she always invited her friends to visit Bucha, telling them it was an "island" of peace outside Kyiv with beautiful parks and excellent infrastructure.
Now the name of her city has become synonymous with war and the suffering of civilians.
"The only thing they know (about Buca) is people dead, people with their hands tied, people tortured, killed and this just breaks my heart," she said.
"If I say it hurts, that's only one percent of what I feel," she said.
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