And then, the big deal of the day: delivery of a 4WD pickup to The. Witches. Of. Bucha. Am I enchanted?? A group of beautiful young women who have lost boyfriends, brothers and much, much more to the Russians when they occupied Bucha early in the full scale invasion. Now, they fight, at night, racing through the streets to chase and shoot down drones. The ceremony included the Ambassador of Denmark, with a letter of commendation from the King, the colonel of the brigade and one of the units of 30 women. Silly me was trying to sneak photos of the women working, not realizing they were mustering up just for us! After potato soup and buckwheat in their modest kitchen, speeches were made and photo ops taken. Two of the leaders demonstrated how the flak jackets they wear are fitted for men, they were asking for women’s fit jackets. They cost about $1000 each. I saved a photo of the vest they showed me online. Other than the Mayor of Bucha, and the translator, I was the only non-military woman there. I was star struck. Kalypso is the leader of the unit we met, and Jesper shared a YouTube of an interview with her in our group chat.
Next, we did some sight seeing around Bucha. As we drove around Bucha and imagined the the occupation, we saw walls strafed with bullet holes all along the road. We visited a sad memorial where nine men were lined up and shot, executed. One survived and played dead until he could crawl to the next house. Russians found him as he was recovering in the vacant house and they brought him to their recovery unit. He survived to tell the story. During the occupation, Russians killed 500 residents. That’s why the Witches of Bucha have to do what they’re doing.