[15][16] The armed forces of Ukraine resisted the Russian advance in the capital's western suburbs of Irpin, Bucha, and Hostomel.

Though there was still ongoing Ukrainian resistance in Hostomel, Russian forces began to advance south to capture the neighboring cities of Irpin and Bucha with the goal of encircling Kyiv.

As the convoy cruised through Bucha it was ambushed at a bridge over the Irpin River, and the unarmored and under-equipped units were completely destroyed.

[21][22] The Russian force was composed of paratroopers, tanks, military engineering units, and reserves from the 36th Combined Arms Army.

[25][26] Andriy Tsaplienko, a Ukrainian journalist, later reported that Russian forces attacked a civilian vehicle, killing a man and injuring another.

[48][49] On 4 March 2022, Fedoruk confirmed that the city remained under Ukrainian control, despite Russian forces continuously launching attacks.

[53] At around 7:15 am that day, a pair of cars carrying two families were spotted by Russian soldiers who proceeded to open fire at the convoy, killing a man in the second vehicle.

[54] On the same day, Oleksandr Kyslyuk, a scholar fluent in 20 languages, translator into Ukrainian of Aristotle, Tacitus and Aquinas and many other classical sources, was killed when a Russian tank targeted his home in Bucha.

[61] Later, Volodymyr Karplyuk [uk], the former mayor of Irpin, stated that Russian forces had destroyed the Glass Plastic and Fiber Research Institute in Bucha, releasing fumes of acetone and other chemicals.

He also stated that Russian forces held control of all main highways in the city, intensified shelling, and would not allow residents of Bucha to leave their homes.

[63][64][65] Later on 8 March, the Russian occupiers allowed civilians to go outside for a limited period of time in order to remove bodies and cook food.

[78] On 22 March, the head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, Oleksandr Pavlyuk, stated that Bucha and Hostomel were under the control of the Russian army and that no Ukrainian offensive actions could be taken there at the time.

[81] The following day, Oleksandr Pavliuk, head of the Ukrainian military administration for the Kyiv region, announced that the Bucha district had mostly been retaken.

[3] Meanwhile, mayor Anatolii Fedoruk and the Institute for the Study of War reported that Bucha had been fully retaken from Russian forces as of 31 March.

[82][2] After Ukrainian forces regained control of Bucha, reports and testimonies of war crimes committed by the Russian military began to circulate.

[84] The Guardian reported that after Ukrainian forces recaptured Kyiv Oblast, "[they] were met with shocking devastation upon their return into the area: bodies in the streets, evidence of execution-style killings of civilians, mass graves and slain children.

"[85] According to The Times and The Washington Post, eighteen mutilated bodies of murdered men, women and children were found in a basement.

Corpses of other killed civilians were left in the road, allegedly some of them booby-trapped with explosives by Russian soldiers as decoys before they retreated.

[89] Evidence appeared to indicate that the Russians had singled out Ukrainian civilian men and killed them in an organised fashion, with many of their bodies in particular found dead with their hands tied behind their backs.

[92] CNN,[93] the BBC, and Bild[94] have released video documentations of numerous dead bodies of civilians lying in the streets and backyards in Bucha, some of them with tied arms or legs.