Vladimir stands on the edge of a mass grave in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv. He holds his hands to his head, then up to the sky.
“Brother, we’ve been looking for you for so long,” he says, bursting into tears halfway through. His brother, Dmitry, has been missing for roughly a week and neighbors told Vladimir he might be buried here.
“We thought you were alive,” Vladimir cries out.
Inside the grave, the bodies are piled on top of one another, mostly inside black bags but some with limbs protruding. Only some are interred. A CNN team saw at least a dozen bodies on the mass grave, but the earth shows signs of recent movement, suggesting many more could lie beneath.
Kyiv Regional Police and local residents say they believe at least 150 people were buried in the mass grave, but the mayor of Bucha says the death toll could be as high as 300. CNN could not independently verify their claims.
Vladimir gathers himself, comforted by his wife, Anna, and a neighbour, Liubov, and leaves. He says he believes his brother is buried there, but the sad reality is he cannot know for sure – and might not for a very long time.
Residents say the grave, on the grounds behind the Church of St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints, started being dug early in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, such was the death toll in this leafy suburb of Kyiv.
Satellite images from Maxar going back to March 10 show the trench already being dug.
As Russian forces retreat from the area around Kyiv, the horrors of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine are increasingly coming to light. The death and destruction brought by Russia’s war machine are on full display in Bucha, where bodies could be seen on the streets of the suburb as early as Sunday. Some had their hands tied behind their backs.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has blamed Russia for the killings inside the district, accusing Moscow of trying to put an end to his “whole nation.”
“This is about the destruction and extermination of all these nationalities,” he said in an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
For its part, Russia has denied any involvement, maintaining it doesn’t target civilians and saying the images of bodies on the streets of Bucha are fake.
Inside the district, the roads are littered with destroyed Russian armored vehicles – including tanks – ambushed by Ukrainian drones or units with NATO-supplied hand-held rocket launchers such as Javelins and Next-Generation Light Anti-Tank Weapons Systems, or NLAWs.
In some cases, entire columns of Russian armored vehicles were trapped on narrow residential roads before being destroyed.
“They thought they could just drive on the streets and go through. That they would be greeted as though it’s alright to come here,” Valery Spichek, an officer with the Ukrainian National Police, tells us. “Maybe they think it is normal to drive around looting, to destroy buildings and to mock people.”
“But our people didn’t allow it,” he adds.
The vehicles are now rusting away where they stopped, evidence of the heavy losses Moscow suffered before being driven out of the area around Kyiv.
The destruction extends to most buildings and other infrastructure around, with very few houses left intact, a majority unlivable after Russia’s offensive on the capital.
The scene in Bucha is similar to what CNN was able to see in other districts around Kyiv, such as Irpin, Myla, Hostomel and as far north as Bordyanka.
In the latter, entire multistory buildings were razed by artillery shells as Ukrainians and Russians battled for control of the area. Authorities say they fear dead bodies are lying underneath the rubble, and that the real death toll is still impossible to measure.