An Open Letter to Bucha Residents
1. Introduction and Positionality
Dear inhabitants of Bucha, this community report aims to equip you (the community) with the tools necessary to implement your vision of rebuilding Bucha from the ground up. Whilst it may appear easier to rebuild the material foundations of the city (buildings, apartments, houses), I worry that the top-down planners will not be able to relate to the distressing events you lived through 18 months ago. Therefore, I ask in this report how we can rethink the urban reconstruction process in an embodied way, one that accounts for the commonness of traumatic experiences within the new urban fabric of the city. The main aim of this report is to think about how to give the Bucha community tools to become a ‘proper stakeholder’ of the restoration. Ultimately, it is the residents of Bucha that know what they need most and therefore the role of their community is to not only advocate but validate what is needed from the top down. Finally, I suggest that if Bucha is rebuilt with its citizens at the centre of what will be a drawn-out process, it will have great potential to serve as a superb model of urban justice for years to come.
I want to confess that I am a UK citizen and do not have a connection to the Bucha community I am writing about. This makes me an outsider to the lived experiences of the Bucha community. Even though I cannot relate to the lived experiences the individuals residing in Bucha have experienced, the first thing I want to say is I do care and deeply sympathise with your community, otherwise, I would not be writing this report and would be diverting my attention elsewhere. However, I must acknowledge that there is an immediate issue that arises with someone from outside a community offering solutions. As I do not have a connection to the Bucha community, I cannot give an ongoing first-hand account of how the reconstruction process in Bucha is materialising. Instead, I must rely upon academic sources and second-hand knowledge to offer recommendations for the reconstruction of Bucha. To counteract such issues, I aim to critically analyse such recommendations and suggest some recommendations of my own within the report.
I want you to spare time to read this report because I worry about ‘for whom’ the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine will benefit. For instance, EU President Ursula von der Leyen stated recently “We will reconstruct Ukraine. Our vision is to turn the destruction of war into opportunities to build a beautiful and healthy future for Ukraine” (Europa.eu, 2023). However, I fear that if Ukraine’s post-war construction becomes a developmental free-for-all for top-down planners to redesign Ukrainian cities, there is a risk that the psychological suffering of Bucha’s residents will be extended. This is because it is likely top-down urban planners cannot relate or know how space within the city was used by Russians often to commit war crimes. Therefore, there is a need to strengthen the role of the Bucha community in its reconstruction to know which parts of the city should be memorialised or rebuilt. This represents the most efficient way for its citizens to come to terms with the psychological effects of war. If this is of interest to you, please read on.
2. Defining the Community and Context
Before we properly investigate the problematic nature of Bucha’s reconstruction, it is important to look at how the community’s disproportionate suffering at the hands of the Russian occupation might complicate efforts to rebuild the city. Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24th 2022. As part of the invasion, the Russian military entered Ukraine from neighbouring Belarus with the aim of swiftly capturing Kyiv. Bucha is a city in “Ukraine’s Kyiv Oblast with a prewar population of 37,321” (populationhub.com, 2023) and therefore to get to Kyiv, the Russians had to capture Bucha which they did on the 27th of February 2022 before eventually withdrawing on the 31st of March 2022 due to strong Ukrainian resistance.
Figure one: Map of Bucha relative to Kyiv (knownsinsiders.com, 2023)
After Ukrainian forces captured Bucha, reports of the Bucha massacre began to circulate. Approximately “458 bodies were recovered from the town” (Andreikovets, 2022) and the mayor of Bucha, Anatoliy Fedoruk, reported that “almost 90% of the dead residents had bullet wounds, not shrapnel wounds” (Andreikovets, 2022). In short, Bucha residents were systematically executed whilst under the Russian occupation. Simultaneously, Russia indiscriminately shelled the city causing significant infrastructure damage. With respect to private infrastructure, “861 private houses [and] 122 apartment buildings” (Kulish, 2023) were destroyed. With respect to social infrastructure, “26 educational institutions [and] 5 religious institutions were destroyed” (Kulish, 2023). With respect to economic infrastructure, “127 industrial facilities were destroyed” (Kulish, 2023). The consequence of this was it created a physical landscape that was completely baron whilst simultaneously creating an extremely psychologically scarred community.
Furthermore, whilst other cities around Western Ukraine such as Kyiv and Lyiv were bombed, they were not physically under the occupation of the Russians. This is where the current Ukrainian Government’s ‘one size fits all approach’ to reconstructing Ukrainian cities faulters. Whilst Kyiv and Lyiv were bombed destroying the material fabric of their cities, as they did not experience the first-hand brutality of the Russians under occupation, I would argue that the embodied after-effects are felt to a much greater extent amongst the community in Bucha relative to other urban communities.
This makes the reconstruction element of Ukrainian cities non-linear as each urban community has a different lived experience of war. However, the multifaceted losses in Bucha go beyond simply physical structures and therefore the trauma the community experienced is now emplaced within their urban fabric. In essence, the violence in Bucha is multilayered which means it is essential urban planners consider what spaces in the city now represent and subsequently how to use spaces in the city to cope with trauma. I would argue it is the community of Bucha rather than top-down urban planners who are therefore best placed to think about this.
3. The Challenges and Current Policy Analysis
Kyiv’s focus remains firmly on the war on the southern and eastern flanks of their country. Despite this, Kyiv wants to start rebuilding Ukrainian cities such as Bucha now as an “act of resistance” (Cohen, 2023) against Russia. This could become problematic because the urban way of life has become a staple mode of attack of Russia by air which could delay any reconstruction efforts. On the other hand, it is promising that the Ukrainian Government has taken this stance. It shows that they recognise the city as playing a fundamental role in the socio-economic life of people but also as “spaces and places that support social connection and sociality” (Klinenburg, 2019) which as this report will argue is integral for the Bucha community to come to terms with their trauma.
Defined challenge: How does war limit the effectiveness of community-led reconstruction?
Current Policy Analysis
The next section of this report will evaluate how Ukraine has initially proposed to reconstruct its cities. The main point this report wants to highlight is that urban recovery in Bucha is not only about physical repair but is also about the process of healing. As Sukhomud (2023) states “physical repair alone can be employed as a continuation of violence, further displacement, and forgetting” and therefore it is important for this report to assess the extent individuals in the community of Bucha are put are the centre of the policy.
Ukraine is creating the conditions of economic recovery whilst fighting a war. According to Rauws (2020), the development of cities “challenges spatial planners and decision-makers because of the wide variety of uncertainties they encompass”. The central government in Kyiv does not know when the war is going to end and therefore they are “creating conditions for development which support a city’s capacity to respond to any changing circumstances” (Rauws, 2020). This concept of adaptive planning can be illustrated through Kyiv’s proposed ‘DREAM’ policy.
The Digital Restoration Ecosystem for Accountable Management (DREAM) is a “centralised statistical database that provides a single digital pipeline for all reconstruction projects” (DREAM.gov, 2023). DREAM puts communities at the centre of the reconstruction process as they can “create projects and present them to international partners to attract financial resources and can manage the reconstruction process themselves” (DREAM.gov, 2023). Furthermore, DREAM is extremely beneficial for reconstructing Bucha. This is because “it prioritises communities based on the level of socio-economic and human impact” (DREAM.gov, 2023) that has occurred to which Bucha should be prioritised as it has disproportionately suffered. DREAM therefore represents a democratised approach to the reconstruction of urban spaces. The people of Bucha “have a right to change themselves by changing the city” (Harvey, 2012) and therefore part of my community recommendations will be how residents in Bucha can fully utilise this system.
Despite the Ukrainian Government giving agency to communities, there are some shortfalls that need to be considered. Firstly, there may be some inequalities in participation amongst the Bucha community. Some individuals may not have access to digital tools or have the skills to use technology. Furthermore, there is a lack of tangibility involved in the process (online system) which when you consider the trauma of the Bucha community, may appear to be insensitive to their experiences.
Furthermore, it could be conceivable that war could make the process of adopting this ‘DREAM’ model more challenging. As this report will argue in the recommendations section, the biggest asset of a community is the people living there and you therefore want to utilise their local expertise to start rebuilding. However, the war has displaced people who previously lived in Bucha in two ways. Firstly, by people fleeing to escape Russian occupation and secondly by compulsory conscription calling up the working-age population to serve on the frontlines. This displacement could make the process of community reconciliation challenging. Rebuilding a community isn’t just about physical structures. It also involves re-establishing social networks, a sense of identity, and a shared community vision. However, whilst a minority of people lived through occupation, the majority of residents managed to flee. This could be socially challenging because some returning residents have not experienced the same extent of trauma relative to individuals who lived under the city’s occupation. Thus, the needs of individuals living within the affected community may differ and I question whether DREAM has the capacity to respond to every individual’s needs. However, the biggest concern for this report is that if the community of Bucha has been displaced to such an extent, then ‘who’ speaks for the community? If priority is given to residents who stayed during the occupation, then does this account for everyone’s needs in the Bucha community in a fair and equitable way.
Finally, it is essential that the community-orientated focus of DREAM is not lost at the expense of Western corporate interests. The World Bank’s “recent estimation for the reconstruction of Ukraine has grown to $411 billion” (Cohen, 2023) and therefore what this report worries about is that if the primary source of funding comes from Western institutions, there may be conditions attached to this that ignore Ukraine’s community-orientated approach. For instance, according to Sukhomud (2023), when the “reconstruction process is directed by Western audiences, discussions about trauma often lead to people being disqualified as irrational” which is a particularly prominent concern for the community of Bucha. Worryingly, phrases such as ‘The World Bank’s mission for rebuilding Ukraine’ keep appearing in the media which makes me question whether Western institutions will engage with the DREAM system at all.
Community Recommendations
These recommendations aim to illustrate the possible ways the residents of Bucha can become a ‘proper stakeholder’ of restoration through community-based action. These will think about how to restore agency and responsibility to the Bucha community and in some recommendations will think about how community-led action could complement the Ukrainian Government’s DREAM policy.
The mindset, models, determination, and assessments of Western government are deeply ingrained with traditional, policy-dominated, top-down approaches. This approach views urban problems as ones that require government action and strict policy to solve. However, the urban trauma experienced in Bucha means that it is necessary to “rethink urban reconstruction processes in an embodied way” (Sukhomud, 2023) to account for the commonness of traumatic experience within the community. Therefore, the Ukrainian Government has tried to find a balance by “integrating bottom-up processes of knowledge with top-down agency” (Semeraro, 2019) through its DREAM policy.
Whilst this is a welcomed start, I suggest community-based action (CBA), a community-led process “based on an individual community’s needs, priorities, knowledge and capacity” (Khan, 2020) needs to come before DREAM. In essence, the community of Bucha will not be able to make the most out of the policy if community ties are not strengthened in the first place. Therefore, I will suggest bottom-up initiatives that aim to rethink how the Bucha community can use space to cope with the psychological effects of war and strengthen community reconciliation.
1. Rubble clear ups
The first step in reconstructing Bucha is thinking about how we can rebuild community ties. The Russians continue to bomb Bucha adding to the infrastructure damage they caused during their short occupation. Therefore, I propose the Bucha rubble clean-up initiative as the initial step in creating community reconciliation in Bucha.
Everyone in the community should work together to clear up rubble in the aftermath of any Russian bombing on the city. Even though this form of civic mobilisation is small-scale, the symbolic significance of this practice should not be underestimated. The process of collective cleaning is organised in a way “that allows the trauma of ruination to be dealt with” (Sukhomud, 2023). Therefore, as the clear-up is done collectively, working together becomes an embodied cultural practice. Thus, small-scale efforts such as these will bring short-term relief in dealing with the initial destruction whilst also providing the foundations for the long-term rebuilding of the local community ties.
However, I would argue civic mobilisation only provides short-term relief for a limited number of people in the community. It is not at a scale large enough to assure the inclusion of everyone in the community of Bucha within the reconstruction process. Therefore, the next section of the recommendations will think about (through a wider lens) how we can take space into account to achieve urban justice in Bucha.
2. Community centres as ‘spaces of social dialogue and learning’
The second step in reconstructing Bucha is starting to think about how to redesign public spaces that are responsive to the needs of the Bucha community. However, this process becomes quite complex due to the fact the Bucha community is extremely displaced.
In order to make sure the needs of everyone in the Bucha community are represented, I suggest the need for the strengthening of local participatory governance to create suitable solutions to the immediate developmental challenges brought by the War. Therefore, social dialogue is needed. This refers to the “consultation, negotiation and information exchange between government and non-government actors on issues of common developmental objectives” (ILO, 2014). To facilitate social dialogue, I suggest the creation of a community centre as a physical space for local public participation and dialogue on the ground.
Here residents can discuss how to frame DREAM policy in three core areas. Firstly, Bucha’s immediate needs such as rebuilding essential infrastructure that gets food and water into the city. Secondly Roy (2016) refers to the “urban as having a historical geography”. Therefore, it is important to think about what made Bucha a great city to live in before the war. Finally, the most important discussion that must occur surrounds what ‘spaces’ take priority to be rebuilt over others. For instance, sites within the city that symbolise the most psychological trauma for residents such as execution sites should be given priority to be reconstructed over other spaces in the city.
Finally, the creation of a community hub in Bucha could educate the community about the Ukrainian Government’s DREAM policy. Older residents who may not be comfortable using a digital system to input their views could be helped in the centre to understand how to use the DREAM system. Therefore, the new community centre could possess an additional meaning as a ‘space for learning’ about the DREAM system and a space to collaboratively propose policy harmoniously as a community.
3. Restoration of livelihoods
Creating livelihood options again for the people of Bucha is fundamentally the most important principle in making sure the people of Bucha feel agency and responsibility again. According to Lyudmila (2019), one of the core aspects of life in the city is understanding urban space as a “machine of social and economic interaction”. Therefore, restoring these interactions will be vital in making Bucha a vibrant urban community again.
One community-based solution to restore economic livelihoods in Bucha is community-led tourism. Bucha has suffered disproportionately as an urban community due to Russian occupation. Therefore, this trauma the residents experienced is now emplaced within the urban fabric of the city. An effective way to come to terms with the trauma experienced is to tell their story to others so people around the world do not forget the atrocities that occurred. In order to cope with their psychological suffering and to provide a steady income, locals could take tourists around the city to various locations where they can learn about the history of the city before the war and understand what life was like for locals in Bucha whilst under occupation.
The income generated from this community-led tourism could then be used to stimulate further community initiatives that is representative of all groups in the community. For instance, the income generated could be used to set up a mental health centre for returning veterans or a scheme to help displaced returnees find housing. Therefore, community-led economic growth could support the creation of further initiatives that would be beneficial in the long-term community development of Bucha.
Community-led tourism could be an effective DREAM proposal as it restores the economic livelihoods of some residents, encourages further community measures and helps individuals come to terms with their experiences under Russian occupation.
4. Grassroot Movements in Bucha
Finally, it is essential the Ukrainian Government does not back track on its promises to allow communities to lead reconstruction efforts and bow to pressure from Western institutions. This means creating a community of accountability in Bucha where the citizens of Bucha should demand transparency and accountability from the central Government in Kyiv. There is a danger that in the process of generating knowledge for collective action in Bucha, this may interfere with the official politics of the central Government.
Therefore, in order to ensure community-led reconstruction is upheld, a grassroots organisation in Bucha should be created that would put pressure on the central Government in the event that the citizens of Bucha started to lose their voice in the reconstruction process. This grassroots movement would give agency to locals in Bucha to feel a sense of duty to their community. After the disruption to routine and day-to-day living due to the war, I think this grassroots movement would be beneficial in giving many community members a sense of purpose again. Finally, a grassroots movement could be important for the reestablishing of community ties. If you have all different groups within the community rallying around a common cause, this in my opinion will prove effective in giving the Bucha community a sense of identity again whilst also creating a culture of accountability and transparency between the central government and Bucha.
Finally, given that Ukraine has a reputation as “the most corrupt country in Europe after Russia” (Bullough, 2015) it is more important than ever for a grassroots organisation to make sure that funds support and go to local communities rather than government officials after the war.
Further Thoughts
This briefing sought to give a succinct overview of the difficulties Bucha’s residents are facing as they aim to rebuild their city. The proposed DREAM policy was then analysed in the briefing, with both its advantages and disadvantages discussed. This analysis then informed four community-led proposals that could accompany and complement the central government’s DREAM policy. These were rubble clear-ups, community hubs, community-led tourism and a Bucha grassroots movement. The proposed solutions in this paper offer the urban community alternative ways to rebuild community ties and make the most out of DREAM from the bottom up.
It is difficult to see how city planning that benefits urban residents now and in the future can ever be realised unless we develop more community-based approaches. Thus, I hope this community briefing serves as a starting point to think about how we can marshal inside-out thinking for reimagining who Bucha is for and under what conditions.
Slava Ukraini!
Reference List
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Images and Videos
Bucha vector map. (2023) Vector & Photo (Free Trial) | Bigstock. Available at: https://www.bigstockphoto.com/image-452256513/stock-vektorgrafik-bucha-vector-map-detailed-map-of-bucha-city-administrative-area-cityscape-panorama-royalty-free-v (Accessed: 26 October 2023).
KnowInsiders (2023) Where is Bucha: History, travel, people, before & after the War, KnowInsiders. Available at: https://knowinsiders.com/where-is-bucha-history-travel-people-before-after-the-war-34478.html (Accessed: 26 October 2023).
Youtube.com (2023) Rebuilding Bucha after a massacre – War in Ukraine a year on | Life on the frontline YouTube. 25 February. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7qRmtVxAa4 (Accessed: 26 October 2023).