Ukrainian forces have recently recaptured swaths of territory in northeast, east and south, sending Russian troops fleeing. But in ravaged towns, suffering doesn't stop with occupation's end.
Corpses in need of reburial, traumatized villagers, rocket remnants strewn across sunflower fields: In eastern Ukraine, this is the bleak landscape left behind whenOver the last six weeks, Ukrainian troops have recaptured thousands of square miles of territory in the northeast, east and south.
Plumes of smoke can be seen on the horizon, and Ukrainian fighter jets roar overhead. On a road outside town, a Ukrainian soldier at a checkpoint offers an admonition: Drive fast, but don’t use your seatbelt. If there’s an artillery strike, you need to be able to crawl from your car. She recounted her escape from Sviatohirsk in early summer: making her way over the bridge spanning the Seversky Donets River as fires raged on all sides, sheltering for a few nights in a 16th century monastery, eventually finding safety to the west.
The occupiers tried to use townspeople as a shield, the two said. When Ukrainian forces stationed across the river began flying surveillance drones over the town to try to assess enemy troop strength, the Russians would move about in civilian clothing. They also forced local people to wear white armbands of the kind the Russian military used.
Town officials, he said, are preoccupied with trying to restore utilities and remove Russian mines. The town had a prewar population of 4,500, but those who fled are being ordered to stay away until de-mining is complete.
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