Extract from ABC News
The world saw the atrocities in Larysa Savenko's suburban Ukrainian neighbourhood days before she did.
Warning: This article contains images and details readers might find distressing.
The 72-year-old was still hiding in her house in the town of Bucha, near the capital Kyiv, this week when apocalyptic scenes of burnt-out military vehicles, ruined homes and muddy chaos on Vokzal'na Street became the latest defining images of the war.
Ms Savenko was holed up in her shed for five weeks in the freezing cold, with her son and a homeless lodger, as Russian forces occupied the street on the road to Kyiv.
The occupation began with a vicious battle, just metres from her house, on 27 February, the third day of the war.
That day, dozens of Russian armoured vehicles heading for the neighbouring town of Irpin, and onward to the capital, were hit by a Ukrainian shelling attack that turned the street into an inferno.
Ms Savenko watched in terror as houses across the road erupted into flames.
"There was shooting everywhere, so we got out through the kitchen window and hid in a cellar.
"We looked out and there were severed hands and legs lying around. They belonged to Russian soldiers."
'Everything is ruined'
After the flames died down, the Russians returned to dig in to their positions in street, as part of a brutal occupation of Bucha that only ended last week.
Many residents were trapped without access to power, water or food. Every few days, Ms Savenko scurried through her yard to next door to feed her neighbour, who was unable to walk.
When Ukrainian forces liberated the area late last week, the scale of Russia's atrocities began to emerge.
Retreating Russian soldiers had left the corpses of civilians strewn across the streets near Ms Savenko's home. The bodies were left on display for days by Ukrainian officials in a grim propaganda exercise.
Local officials said many had gunshot wounds to the head, and their hands and feet were bound. At least 280 people were buried in mass graves, according to Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk.
Two days later, Ms Savenko finally dared to leave her shed. She discovered rubble where her neighbours' homes used to be.
"Only yesterday, I saw everything," she said.
"My friend's house was burnt down. Everything is ruined. It's terrifying.
"You can't do that in the 21st century. It's such a nightmare — all the tortures, it's impossible."
Trapped residents survived on any food they could find
Locals who fled the war are beginning to return to their homes in Bucha and surrounding areas, hoping that Russia's withdrawal from the Kyiv area will hold.
Olga, 42, travelled hundreds of
kilometres today with her husband and 20-year-old son to their Bucha
apartment, which was damaged in a Russian air strike.
The family had only moved into their home last August, after paying off loans for two years and finally completing a renovation.
She, her husband, Oleksandr, and son, Dmytro, spent the day scraping glass from blown-out windows and sweeping shrapnel from the floor.
One of the buildings in their apartment complex was completely destroyed in the air strike a month ago, after Olga and her family had fled Bucha.
Other residents stayed on in their damaged homes, with no food, water or power. Some survived on food in the wreckage of Olga's apartment.
"There was a family with children — we told them where the keys were and they got in through the window," she said.
"They took water and some food to survive, and stayed in the cellar until they were able to escape."
The war has also irreparably damaged Olga and Oleksandr's family, some of whom live in Russia.
"When we called them, they said those were fakes. According to them, Russians came to liberate us.
"I feel fear and hatred towards Russians."
Russian forces are now regrouping for a fresh assault on Ukraine's east, where Ukraine's government says the atrocities are on a far greater scale than even those in Bucha.
Ms Savenko is now trying to salvage her house — one of just three on Vokzal'na Street that survived World War II.
Despite enduring the gravest brutality, the residents of Bucha hold onto hope that Vladimir Putin's forces will not return.
"We will win, I believe this," Ms Savenko said.
"It's a pity that I will not live long enough to see us in the European Union and in NATO, but we will be there, for sure, because Ukrainians are very brave people.
"We are strong and freedom-loving."
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