- Burnt corpses of tanks scattered in the countryside
- The peasants clean up, consider themselves dead, while the Russian occupiers withdraw
- The city of Kharkov is facing intensified bombing
HUSARIVKA, Ukraine, April 15 (Reuters) – Shattered mud tanks, destroyed buildings and grieving families mark the recaptured eastern Ukrainian village, whose residents are considering the price they and their former Russian occupiers have to pay.
Ukrainian troops recaptured Husarivka, an agricultural village of 500-600 people in peacetime, about 150km southeast of Kharkiv last month, after heavy fighting following the Russian invasion on February 24th.
As Russian forces withdrew after failing to capture major cities, including Kyiv and Kharkiv, to redirect their offensive to the Southeast region of Donbass, residents of the surrounding areas began cleaning up after weeks of occupation.
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Echoing stories of poorly disciplined and ill-supplied Russian forces from other places in northern and eastern Ukraine where the Russians had withdrawn, 79-year-old Nadezhda Sirova said young soldiers went from house to house looking for food.
Some of the invading Russians said they were on a mission or there to purge Ukraine of bandits and “Nazis,” she added, standing in a section near her house.
“Where do you see bandits and Nazis here? We are just normal, peaceful people. Ukrainians,” she said.
In the fields above the village, burnt-out armored personnel carriers and two broken Russian anti-aircraft guns sit abandoned in the mud, surrounded by debris, including gas masks, computer printers and soaked shoes.
In the village itself, a destroyed Russian tank, already rusty, lies on the road, with its exploded dome next to it.
A Ukrainian soldier said the fighting lasted about three weeks, using anti-tank weapons, including artillery and foreign-delivered Javelin missiles, eventually driving out two Russian battalion tactical groups.
“We bypassed the enemy on the right and left, took up good positions and destroyed their equipment,” said the soldier, who spoke to reporters on condition that he be identified only by his nickname Parker.
He said his unit had captured a Russian officer and two engineering scouts trying to plant mines around the village to stop the Ukrainian attack, and had to fight counterattacks on what he described as Russian sabotage and intelligence groups.
“We repulsed attacks three times when they tried to enter,” he said.
BURNED BODIES
It was not possible to confirm his account alone, but at least a dozen destroyed armored vehicles, including tanks marked “Z” by Russian forces, remained in the village and surrounding fields.
Ukrainian authorities say their forces have killed nearly 20,000 Russian soldiers and destroyed hundreds of tanks and armored personnel carriers since the invasion. Other estimates are much lower, but Western officials estimate that the death toll in Russia is in the thousands.
Ukraine also says hundreds of Ukrainian civilians were killed during the Russian occupation. Russia has denied attacking civilians, but Husarivka locals said several locals were killed or disappeared.
Three bodies, burned beyond recognition, were found in the basement of a house and taken away to be investigated for possible signs of torture, they said.
The state of Husarivka coincides with a series of villages east of Kharkiv, a predominantly Russian-speaking city near Ukraine’s northeastern border that has been targeted by President Vladimir Putin’s army since the early days of the war.
Although it no longer threatens to enter the city, Russia has maintained a partial blockade and subjected it to days of increasingly heavy bombing.
Residential buildings and infrastructure in Kharkov were hit, causing dozens of casualties, with more than 60 artillery and rocket attacks in one night this week. On Friday, Reuters reporters heard that mortar shells had hit northern parts of the city.
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Additional reports by Alkis Konstantinidis; Edited by Andrew Cotorn
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