Entitled United For Victory, the concert was held at the Bucha municipal park on Saturday evening, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
At the entrance to the park, organisers put up a list of the 501 civilian residents of Bucha, including children, confirmed to have been killed by the invading Russian forces in spring last year, according to officials.
Saturday’s concert featured performances by musicians from Poland, Moldova and Lithuania, as well as the orchestra and choir of the Kyiv National Theatre of Operetta, the PAP news agency reported.
Poland’s ambassador to Ukraine, Bartosz Cichocki, told reporters: “Bucha has hosted an annual operetta festival since 2013. This tradition has been interrupted by the war. This year, the organisers decided to hold a requiem concert in tribute to the victims, to everyone who has suffered, lost their loved ones and the property of a lifetime.”
The Polish envoy added: “This concert is also a message for the future, a signal of victory over Russian evil. It shows that Bucha is still alive.”
Cichocki noted that Poland had funded temporary accommodation for Bucha residents displaced by the 33-day Russian occupation.
He told reporters: “Poland stood with Bucha during the worst of times, when many people had nowhere to live after the Russians had been driven out. The Polish Prime Minister’s Office built one of the temporary-housing complexes here. And today we’re here again to take a step forward, a step towards restoring normal life.”
Cichocki was accompanied at Saturday’s concert by the Moldovan ambassador to Ukraine, Valeriu Chiveri, and the Lithuanian envoy, Valdemaras Sarapinas, the PAP news agency reported.
Meanwhile, the performers included Moldovan opera singer Anastasia Leno, Lithuanian baritone Vytautas Juozapaitis, a member of parliament, and Polish soprano Paulina Janczaruk, a soloist at the Musical Theatre in the eastern city of Lublin.
Janczaruk told PAP: “I came here without the slightest hesitation, because I know how much it matters. What happened in Bucha is terrible and shouldn’t have happened. Singing here is a very important experience for me.”
Before the concert, the audience gathered around the plaques with the names of the victims of the Bucha Massacre, installed at the entrance to the park. Bucha residents found the names of their friends and neighbours on the list, the PAP news agency reported.
One woman said: “I’ve already seen the names of three people I knew on the list of the victims.”
Meanwhile, Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said the town was “slowly going back to normal,” although it was "very difficult" amid the ongoing war and the “constant threat of shelling.”
He added: “A war is going on in my country and there is not a single settlement that can feel safe. But we are living and working in these conditions, and doing everything to rebuild what’s been destroyed and ensure that residents return to the town.”
As well as welcoming back its longtime inhabitants who fled the Russian invasion, Bucha has also welcomed some 8,000 war refugees from Ukraine’s eastern regions, the PAP news agency reported.
Fedoruk told reporters: “Of course, the situation is not without problems, but we’re getting help from our international partners, including local governments in Poland.”
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
Monday is day 495 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, tvp.pl, belsat.eu