Bombing of Borodianka

Borodianka, a town of roughly 13,000 residents on a strategically important road north of Kyiv, was extensively bombed by the Russian Armed Forces during the early phase of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The deadliest attack occurred on the evening of 1 March and morning of 2 March 2022, when Russian aviation destroyed eight multi-storey residential buildings, killing at least 40 civilians. Ukrainian prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova and the Prosecutor's Office of Kyiv Oblast said Russian forces used air-dropped FAB-250 bombs as well as Smerch and Uragan multiple rocket launchers, and that damage consistent with cluster munitions was found in the town. Venediktova said the strikes were timed for night hours "when the maximum number of people would be at home."

Most of the buildings in Borodianka were destroyed, including nearly all of its main street. Ukraine's minister of defense, Oleksiy Reznikov, said many residents were buried alive by the airstrikes and, in some cases, lay dying for up to a week, and that people who went to help them were shot at by Russian soldiers. Venediktova further accused Russian soldiers of murders, torture, and beatings of civilians. Some residents reportedly hid in caves for 38 days during the occupation.

Russian forces withdrew from the region on 26 March 2022 to concentrate on fighting in Donbas. Borodianka's mayor said that as a Russian convoy moved through the town, soldiers fired through every open window, and he estimated at least 200 people had died. By the time Russian troops withdrew, only a few hundred residents remained in the town, with about 90% of the population having fled, and an unknown number of dead left in the rubble. Retreating Russian forces mined the town.

Agence France-Presse reporters who arrived on 5 April 2022 did not see bodies but documented widespread destruction, noting some homes "simply no longer existed." On 7 April, Venediktova announced that an initial 26 bodies had been found in the rubble of two destroyed buildings, and described Borodianka as "the most destroyed town in the area," stating "only the civilian population was targeted; there are no military sites." President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the same day that the situation in Borodianka appeared "even worse" than in Bucha, where a separate massacre had been discovered roughly a week earlier. According to Europe 1, ten days after Russian troops left, firefighters were still recovering bodies from the rubble amid the risk of further building collapses, with more bodies found daily; local morgues were overwhelmed and corpses had to be transported 100 kilometres or more for processing.

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported 41 bodies found under rubble as of the initial recovery period, and by 6 May 2022 local police reported finding more than 300 bodies in burials made by local residents during the Russian occupation.