Ukraine: How this woman’s trip from her grandmother’s house changed her life forever
In May last year, we stood in the grounds of what had been a mass grave of the residents of Bucha – just a month after the city was liberated from invading Russian forces.
Tetiana Sichkar, then just 20 years old, told us how the occupation had affected her life in the most unimaginable way.
Today, she takes us to the edge of a forest where a war crime devastated her life.
On 24 March last year, Tetiana and her 46-year-old mother, also called Tetiana, made the short trip home from her grandmother’s house – the only place with a working gas stove and a wood fire – through the woods along a railway line.
They wore white tape on their arms to signify to the Russian troops they were civilians. They were not a threat.
Unbeknownst to anyone, in just seven days, Bucha would be free again.
But as the two Tetianas walked that Thursday a loud crack pierced the quiet between the trees.
“Suddenly I heard a very loud gunshot,” the young woman says.
“Then I saw something, maybe blood, maybe a bullet.”
She remembers telling everyone to get down, and falling to the ground. Shaking her mother’s leg, there was no response.
“There was blood everywhere. Her eyes were still open and she was just staring. And I started to scream. I screamed for maybe five minutes.”
Does she know where the shot came from? Tetiana is not sure.
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Powerful images from the last year
She gestures to her right, through the thickest part of the forest.
“My father believes it was over here, because that is where the Russians were.”
She points to a white building ahead and says calmly: “The sniper was on the second floor there.”
Staring at the upstairs window it is hard to believe Tetiana’s composure while rooted to the spot of such a tragedy.
A short distance away, we are led to the grave of her mother.
Tetiana Sichkar at the grave of her mother
She says the funeral arrangements were a blur.
Before the Russians were pushed out of Bucha, they gave her mother’s body back in a stolen car and she was buried first in her garden, before a rush of ceremonies took place at a cemetery when it was safe again.
There are hundreds of graves with less than a foot between them – the site has been the final resting place for so many long before the Russian invasion.
A map of the conflict on the one-year anniversary
Tetiana, now 21, shows us a picture of her and her mum, the most important woman in her life.
“Of course, I miss her most because she was the closest one to me,” she says – her life must be so hard now. “Life is hard. But it goes on.”
She is studying computer programming from her flat in another part of Bucha, but takes trips into Kyiv to meet the woman who is helping her fight for justice.
Tetiana pictured with human rights lawyer, Oksana Mykhalevych
Oksana Mykhalevych, 36, is a lawyer who has been prosecuting human rights abuses since the Maidan Uprising in 2014, when 100 activists and 13 police officers were killed during demonstrations against then-president Viktor Yanukovych.
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She has pages of documents neatly sorted in plastic sleeves in a bright red folder, and will help Tetiana liaise with the official war crimes investigators who have been given support from legal systems around the world, including the UK.
Oksana outlines that they want Ukrainian police to stage a reconstruction next month to at least establish exactly where that fatal shot came from – so they can perhaps identify the Russian military unit involved.
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They will then go after the commanders. “Someone should take responsibility,” she tells us.
Tetiana admits that the Russian military personnel who occupied Bucha may have been sent to another battlefront in the country and may have met their fate at the hands of Ukrainian soldiers.
“It is very likely that that person is already dead. But if that person is still alive, I believe that I will see him in a court. And maybe I’ll ask him what made him do that to my family”.
An audacious Ukrainian drone attack against multiple airbases across Russia is a humiliating security breach for Vladimir Putin that will doubtless trigger a furious response.
Pro-Kremlin bloggers have described the drone assault – which Ukrainian security sources said hit more than 40 Russian warplanes – as “Russia’s Pearl Harbor” in reference to the Japanese attack against the US in 1941 that prompted Washington to enter the Second World War.
Ukraine war latest: Russia accuses Kyiv of ‘terrorist attack’
The Ukrainian operation – which used small drones smuggled into Russia, hidden in mobile sheds and launched off the back of trucks – also demonstrated how technology and imagination have transformed the battlefield, enabling Ukraine to seriously hurt its far more powerful opponent.
Moscow will have to retaliate, with speculation already appearing online about whether President Putin will again threaten the use of nuclear weapons.
“We hope that the response will be the same as the US response to the attack on their Pearl Harbor or even harsher,” military blogger Roman Alekhin wrote on his Telegram channel.
Codenamed ‘Spider’s Web’, the mission on Sunday was the culmination of one and a half years of planning, according to a security source.
In that time, Ukraine’s secret service smuggled first-person view (FPV) drones into Russia, sources with knowledge of the operation said.
Flat-pack, garden-office style sheds were also secretly transported into the country.
The drones were hidden in truck containers. Pic: SBU Security Service
The oblong sheds were then built and drones were hidden inside, before the containers were put on the back of trucks and driven to within range of their respective targets.
At a chosen time, doors on the roofs of the huts were opened remotely and the drones were flown out. Each was armed with a bomb that was flown into the airfields, with videos released by the security service that purportedly showed them blasting into Russian aircraft.
These drones were used to destroy Russian bomber aircraft. Pic: SBU Security Service
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Among the targets were Tu-95 and Tu-22 bomber aircraft that can launch cruise missiles, according to the Ukrainian side. An A-50 airborne early warning aircraft was also allegedly hit. This is a valuable platform that is used to command and control operations.
The use of such simple technology to destroy multi-million-pound aircraft will be watched with concern by governments around the world.
Suddenly, every single military base, airfield and warship will appear that little bit more vulnerable if any truck nearby could be loaded with killer drones.
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The most immediate focus, though, will be on how Mr Putin responds.
Previous attacks by Ukraine inside Russia have triggered retaliatory strikes and increasingly threatening rhetoric from the Kremlin.
But this latest operation is one of the biggest and most significant, and comes on the eve of a new round of peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv that are meant to take place in Turkey. It is not clear if that will still happen.
US President Donald Trump has been pushing for the two sides to make peace but Russia has only escalated its war.
Ukraine clearly felt it had nothing to lose but to also go on the attack.
Two people are dead and nearly 560 people were arrested after disorder broke out in France following Paris Saint-Germain’s victory in the Champions League final, the French interior ministry has said.
The ministry added 192 people were injured and there were 692 fires, including 264 involving vehicles.
A 17-year-old boy was stabbed to death in the city of Dax during a PSG street party after Saturday night’s final in Munich, the national police service said.
The second person killed was a man who was hit by a car while riding a scooter during PSG celebrations, the interior minister’s office said.
Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez has said the man was in his 20s and although the incident is still being investigated, it appears his death was linked to the disorder.
Meanwhile, French authorities have reported that a police officer is in a coma following the clashes.
A burning bike on the Champs Elysees during the disorder. Pic: Reuters
The officer had been hit by a firecracker that emerged from a crowd of supporters in Coutances in the Manche department of northwestern France, according to reports in the country.
Initial investigations reportedly suggest the incident was accidental and the police officer was not deliberately targeted.
The perpetrator has not been identified.
A man walks past teargas during incidents after the Champions League final soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan. Pic: AP
A burning bike on the Champs Elysees during the disorder. Pic: Reuters
The interior ministry earlier said 22 security forces workers were injured during the chaos – including 18 who were injured in Paris, along with seven firefighters.
In a news conference today, Mr Nuñez said only nine of the force’s officers had been injured in the French capital.
He added that fireworks were directed at police and firefighters were attacked while responding to car fires.
There were 559 arrests across the country during the disorder, including 491 in Paris. Of those detained across the country, 320 were taken into police custody – with 254 in the French capital.
Mr Nuñez said although most people wanted to celebrate PSG’s win, some only wanted to get involved in fights with police.
He also said the force is only at “half-time” in its response because the PSG team will be celebrating their Champions League victory on the Champs Élysées later today.
Police in Paris during the disorder. Pic: Reuters
Police in Paris during the disorder. Pic: Reuters
Mr Nuñez said that the police presence and military presence in Paris will be increased on the ground for the parade.
It comes after flares and fireworks were set off in the French capital after PSG beat Inter Milan 5-0 in Munich – the biggest ever victory in a Champions League final.
Around 5,400 police were deployed across Paris after the game, with officers using tear gas and pepper spray on the Champs Élysées.
Pic: AP
Pic: AP
At the top of the Champs Élysées, a water cannon was used to protect the Place de l’Etoile, near the landmark Arc de Triomphe.
Police said a large crowd not watching the match tried to push through a barrier to make contact with officers.
Some 131 arrests were made, including 30 who broke into a shoe shop on the Champs Élysées.
Police have said a total of four shops, including a car dealership and a barbers, were targeted during the disorder in Paris.
Two cars were set alight close to Parc des Princes, police said.
PSG forward Ousmane Dembélé appealed for calm in a post-match interview with Canal+, saying: “Let’s celebrate this but not tear everything up in Paris.”
Pics: AP
After the final played at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, thousands of supporters also tried to rush the field.
Police lined up in front of the PSG end of the stadium at the final whistle, but struggled to contain the fans for several minutes when they came down from the stands following the trophy presentation.
Pics: AP
Désiré Doué, the 19-year-old who scored two goals and assisted one in the final, said after the game: “I don’t have words. But what I can say is, ‘Thank you Paris,’ we did it.”
Despite being a supporter of PSG’s rivals Olympique de Marseille, French President Emmanuel Macron also said on social media: “A glorious day for PSG!
“Bravo, we are all proud. Paris, the capital of Europe this evening.”
Mr Macron’s office said the president would receive the players at the Elysee Palace on Sunday.
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Three patients have been killed and dozens of other people were reportedly injured after a fire at a hospital in Germany.
The blaze broke out in a room in the geriatric ward of the Marienkrankenhaus early on Sunday.
It started on the ground floor and spread to the level above, with smoke affecting much of the four-storey building in the city of Hamburg.
Firefighters were alerted soon after midnight.
They said they found several patients calling for help from windows, and some people were rescued using ladders.
Pic: AP
Pic: Reuters
Three adults died and more than 30 were injured in the fire, the German news agency dpa said.
One of the injured is in a life-threatening condition, while 18 have serious injuries and 15 have minor injuries, the agency added.
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Part of the building had to be evacuated, though the wounded were mostly treated at the hospital.
Two injured people were taken to other nearby clinics.
The blaze was put out within about 20 minutes. The cause is not yet known.
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