More than a year after Ukraine reclaimed control of a Kyiv suburb, its residents are still identifying bodies

• Russia took control of Bucha, a Kyiv suburb, in a brutal campaign at the beginning of the war.
• Ukraine fought back and reclaimed the town, which is trying to rebuild.

It's been 501 days since Russia first invaded Ukraine. And it wasn't long after that Russian forces reached the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine's capital.

The Russians found staunch resistance around the capital and were ultimately pushed back, but not before exacting a brutal campaign on surrounding Ukrainian towns.

More than a year after the Russians were driven out of Bucha, a Kyiv suburb, residents there are still healing.

And they are still identifying the bodies of civilians killed.

Today, tidy homes decorate Bucha's streets, The New York Times reported. Children splash and play in a town fountain. Schools and a church have been rebuilt, and life is slowly returning to something that resembles normal.

Only a little more than a year ago, it was a different scene there. Mutilated bodies lay strewn on the street after a Russian sniper stationed atop a local school cut them down, The New York Times previously reported. Survivors found parents shot dead next to their children, and bodies that had been raped, tortured, and held captive in basements.

A memorial for those killed during the invasion lists 501 names, though officials note it remains incomplete. Officials are still working to identify the remains of some 80 people, according to the Times.

Vadym Yevdokymenko, 21, is still trying to determine if the remains of a burned corpse found in a garage belonged to his father.

"I wish it had ended," Yevdokymenko told the Times. "This case is not closed; it's complicated."

While many families fled before the Russians arrive, not everyone made it out. Nazar Havryliuk, 17, told the Times that his father and uncle were amongst those who chose to stay. They were found slain in their yard, along with the family's two dogs.

"They were not able to defeat our army so they killed ordinary people," he told the Times.

The Times documented nearly three dozen people who were either shot dead in their homes or set ablaze in a parking lot. Reporters for the outlet also found more than 100 body bags at a communal grave. Now there is a makeshift memorial where people come to pay their respects.

"We don't ask these people to come here," Andriy Halavin, a priest in Bucha, told the Times. "But since they do come, we share with them our experience and pain."