But Rooters reports that there’s a trail of smashed tanks and dead bodies that marks Russia’s retreat from the outskirts of Kyiv, attesting to some fierce battles that took place in the last several days.
Ukraine recaptured more territory around Kyiv from Russian soldiers who left shattered villages and their own abandoned tanks as they moved away from the capital, while a disputed cross-border strike in Russia complicated peace talks on Friday.
In the hamlet of Dmytrivka to the west of the capital, smoke was still rising from the wrecks of armored vehicles and the bodies of at least eight Russian soldiers lay in the streets, Rooters correspondents saw.
"From one side we were hearing the tanks shooting at us, and from the area of Bucha was a massive mortar shelling," said resident Leonid Vereshchagin, a business executive, referring to a town to the north.
On Friday, PJ Media’s Kevin Downey Jr. covered the attack on a Russian fuel depot that destroyed several million gallons of fuel. There was some initial speculation that the attack was actually carried out by disgruntled Russian helicopter pilots who were refusing to fight in Ukraine. But U.S. intelligence analysts are now confirming the attack was initiated by two Mi-24 helicopters of Ukrainian origin.
Washington Post:
Despite this apparent trolling, many military and intelligence analysts said it had been a Ukrainian attack carried out by two Mi-24 helicopters that swept in low; fired rockets at the fuel depot, causing a massive explosion and igniting fuel tank fires; and then departed, still flying at a very low altitude. No casualties were reported.
If the attack is confirmed, it would mark an audacious and risky move by Ukraine, with its forces shifting from a largely defensive posture to a direct
...KABOOM!...
on Russia at a time when the Russian military appears weakened.
Hitting the fuel supply depot was a stroke of genius. Every drop of fuel used by Russian forces in Ukraine has to be brought over the border by Russian trucks — trucks pulled out of mothballs and put in service for the war. The trucks are poorly maintained and are breaking down regularly.
| Courtesy of Skidmark: |
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
- Ukraine has taken back the 'whole Kyiv region', the country's deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said
- Russian armoured vehicles on outskirts of Kyiv have been reduced to rubble amid Ukrainian counterattacks
- Dozens of burned out tanks, troop transport trucks and armoured vehicles line the once-bustling highways
- No10 said Boris Johnson spoke with President Volodymyr Zelensky to congratulate his troops' push back
- Ukrainian units report more possible war crimes after finding the bound bodies of dead civilians in Bucha
- President Zelensky warned Moscow's retreating forces left behind 'catastrophic' situations and mined homes
Streets of Kyiv suburb 'littered' with bodies, 280 buried in mass grave
[NYPOST] Almost 300 people were buried in a mass grave in Bucha, a commuter town northwest of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, its mayor said Saturday, after the Ukrainian army retook control of the key town from Russia only to find corpses strewn throughout the community.
"In Bucha, we have already buried 280 people in mass graves," Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk told AFP by phone. He said the destroyed town’s streets are littered with corpses.
In one residential street, the bodies of at least 20 men in civilian clothes were found strewn over an area of several hundred yards.
Graphic videos and photos of that street and others in the community circulated online.
One showed a man’s body with his hands tied behind his back, and an open Ukrainian passport lay on the ground beside him. Another had a gaping head wound.
Two lay near bicycles and a third was next to an abandoned car. Some lay face up, with their limbs askew, while others were lying face down.