George Gittoes on Bucha, blown-up tanks and sudden endings in Ukraine

The Werri Beach filmmaker and artist along with his wife, Hellen Rose, is in Ukraine, documenting the war as it happens.

But he is so affected by what he has seen on the outskirts of Kyiv, he's not ready to explain it in depth.

Now known as "the massacre of Bucha" it is believed civilians had their hands bound by Russian forces and then shot at close range. The in response, the Kremlin has said allegations of war crimes in Bucha are a "monstrous forgery".

"I will write in detail about Bucha when I can bring myself to do so," Gittoes emailed. "It was a horrific experience."

Scenes on the road to Bucha were disturbing enough with the remnants of Russian tanks, and soldiers, left abandoned.

"Most of the tank crews have been blown to bits," Gittoes explained. "All that remains of their physical bodies is what is contained inside body armour, shoes and helmets.

"I did this drawing of the charred Russian soldier in his tank knowing I will have to paint what I was seeing. It will be hard to bring memories like this back when in the safety of my beautiful seaside studio at Werri Beach."

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"Irpin has a key bridge at the entrance to Kyiv, a 20-minute drive to the centre of the city. To enable Putin to achieve his goal of taking Kyiv in three days Russian tanks needed to cross this bridge. For days we had heard the battle raging at the Irpin crossing. From our apartment it sounded too close.

'The Ukraine army had to make a terrible decision. They knew it they blew the bridge it would cut people off from fleeing into Kyiv. Once the explosives were detonated under the bridge its broken half gained the name 'The Bridge of Death'. The first cars to arrive as it collapsed, were immediately prevented from escaping by the Russians who fired indiscriminately into them and torched many. Those who remained alive were executed in or near their cars. The smell of death was overpowering.

"Since these were families most cars had children's toys, books, clothing and digital game boards. In several there were items needed by mothers caring for babies. On one packet there was a picture of a cute, smiling baby. I zoomed my lens onto it and then pulled out to the front of the car riddled with bullet holes. For a second my camera hand shook as images of my grandchildren flashed through my mind.

"It would be easier to simply roll our cameras past a scene like this and leave quickly to try to insulate our minds from the impact. But it is not a matter of simply recording we must find ways to tell the story that will cut through what used to be referred to as 'compassion fatigue'. An overload of war coverage from Ukraine will make TV audiences want to switch off and tune out unless the way it is told is inventive.

"For the Ukraine army, who have pushed the Russians back over the last couple of days and liberated Irpin, the cars and their contents are sacred and not to be violated. The ghosts that surround them, especially the child ghosts, need respect. I climbed onto the roof of a burnt-out van to get a high vantage point for my camera and looked across to the critical stare of a soldier, realising I had stepped over the line and broken an unspoken taboo.

"In one car I saw an expensive looking book resting on the driver's seat. It was black and a pen was inserted, holding a place between the pages. I walked to the other side of the car and opened it to discover it was a diary. The pages were dated.

"It ended the day the writer's life ended. I put my camera through the shattered window and filmed my hand opening the diary to this last entry, flipping the blank pages. The diary would never be completed like the life of the writer. I was tempted to save the book and those last writings, but it had to remain on the driver's seat."

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