Dmytro Dzhulay is a correspondent for RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.
In early March 2022, as Russian troops approached Kyiv, marines built three pontoon bridges to gain a foothold across the Irpin River. But by blowing up a dam, Ukrainian forces flooded the area -- and pushed back Russian troops who abandoned their armor in the flood waters.
Russian soldiers opened fire on them with a cannon, machine guns, and assault rifles. Twins Yevhen and Bohdan Samodiy and their friend Valentyn Yakymchuk were killed while walking down the street in their home village of Mokhnatyn, in northern Ukraine, on March 14.
When Russian troops entered the village of Stariy Bykiv, they took Viktoria Vovk's son and son-in-law for "questioning," promising to release them later in the day. It was the last time she saw them alive.
Despite the best efforts of Soviets to suppress evidence of the terrible famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in 1932-33, a handful of photographers managed to defy the authorities by capturing the horrors of the Holodomor on film.
Sixty years ago, a tsunami of mud officially killed 145 people in Kyiv. But one historian believes many more were buried alive.
