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Valentyna beams when she talks about her new vocation ? a ?witch of Bucha?.

That?s the unofficial moniker of almost 100 women aged 19 to 64 who are volunteers in part-time military service in air defence units in the suburban community northwest of Kyiv.

Each ?Bucha witch? trains to handle assault rifles and machineguns to shoot down Russian drones that swarm above their homes several times a month.

The weapons fly towards Kyiv to blow up buildings, prompting Ukrainian air defence forces to launch pricey Western-supplied missiles at them.

The buzzing swarms repeat the route of Russian ground forces in early 2022 when they occupied most of the Bucha district for 33 days and committed atrocities, now well documented, that captured the world?s attention.

According to Ukrainian officials and international war crimes monitors, Russian fighters killed hundreds of civilians and robbed, raped and tortured thousands more.

Decimated by the killings, migration and mobilisation, residents in Bucha described a community reeling from a collective post-traumatic stress disorder and itching for revenge. (Al Jazeera)

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