On 7 November 2025 at 12:00 p.m., the Exhibition Center of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War will host a commemorative event titled “Wounds of Bucha’s Soil.”
The event is dedicated to the tragedy of Bucha and Irpin, the Hero City of Ukraine, and the Bucha district, which in 2022 found themselves at the epicenter of hostilities and became a symbol of the resilience of the Ukrainian people. In the first weeks of the full-scale invasion, Bucha was one of the key defensive lines of the Kyiv region: it was here that Ukrainians held back the enemy’s advance toward the capital, stopping columns of russian military equipment on the approaches to Kyiv.
This defense, carried out at a tremendous cost, became a symbol of courage, suffering, and the steadfastness of the civilian population. The footage from the de-occupied Yablunska Street revealed to the world the extent of the atrocities committed by the Russian army, turning Bucha into a globally recognized symbol of resistance and struggle.
The event will revisit those days through personal stories of the people whose experiences are, among others, documented in Olha Vorobiova’s books Voices of Memory. Bucha – Hero City and Unbroken Irpin. Within the Museum’s walls, the voices of eyewitnesses will be heard — testimonies, stories of the families of the fallen, and memories of those who witnessed the tragedy firsthand. The event will serve as a space of living memory — a place for reflection on what was endured and for honoring the Ukrainians who gave their lives for freedom.
The event will feature:
• Nataliia Verbova – widow of Territorial Defense fighter Andrii Verbovyi, tortured to death by the occupiers;
• Olha Vorobiova – author of the memoir collections Voices of Memory. Bucha – Hero City and Unbroken Irpin;
• Kostiantyn Kukushkin – coordinator of the publication of these books;
• Liudmyla Humeniuk – mother of Roman Shymanskyi, a serviceman who was killed on February 25, 2022, during the demolition of the Romanivskyi Bridge across the Irpin River, stopping a column of enemy vehicles advancing toward Kyiv;
• Oleksandr Dubchak – sapper who carried out the demolition of the Romanivskyi Bridge;
• Andrii Halavin – rector of the Church of St. Andrew the First-Called (Bucha), who buried the city’s fallen residents;
• Dmytro Hapchenko – Chief of Staff of the Bucha City Council;
• Yurii Savchuk – Director General of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, head of the Museum’s expedition to the de-occupied areas of the Kyiv region in April 2022.
The discussion will be moderated by Liubov Krupnyk, Senior Research Associate at the Museum’s Research Department on the Russian-Ukrainian War, specializing in memorialization and the formation of memory culture.
During the event, documentary footage and photographs capturing the aftermath of the occupation of Bucha and the surrounding settlements will be shown.
