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The corpses of slain Russian soldiers line a road leading into a liberated Ukrainian village, graphic pictures show, as Kyiv‘s counteroffensive presses on.
Pictures from Storozheve, newly liberated by Ukraine’s forces this week, show bodies scattered in fields and on the roadside, among burnt-out armoured vehicles.
The grisly scenes bear witness to the ferocity of fighting as Ukrainian troops recaptured Storozheve and several other villages in the past few days as part of a counteroffensive in southern and eastern Ukraine.
The village had been occupied by Russian forces since March 2022, one month after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The soldiers said about 50 Russian soldiers were killed in a ‘mopping-up operation’ and four were taken prisoner.
Pictures from Storozheve, newly liberated by Ukraine’s forces this week, show bodies scattered in fields and on the roadside, among burnt-out armoured vehicles – as Kyiv’s counteroffensive presses on in a region in the south of the embattled country
The soldiers said about 50 Russian soldiers were killed in a ‘mopping-up operation’ and four were taken prisoner. Pictured: The body of a Russian soldier is seen next to a destroyed tank
The grisly scenes bear witness to the ferocity of fighting as Ukrainian troops recaptured Storozheve and several other villages in the past few days as part of a counteroffensive in southern and eastern Ukraine
Storozheve is one of a cluster of settlements near the Mokry Yali river that Ukraine says its troops have captured since their counteroffensive began. Pictured: A map showing were Ukrainian troops have advanced in recent days
Some of the dead Russian soldiers lay on the dusty ground beside the husks of their vehicles when Reuters journalists reached the village on Wednesday.
Others were crumpled in the grass and fields nearby where they died.
Inside the village, the small one-storey houses that line the road have been badly damaged by shelling, their roofs completely gone or with gaping holes.
An abandoned pram lay overturned at the side of the road. The village was silent, its residents gone or staying out of sight.
‘Three days ago we liberated the village of Storozheve. You can see for yourselves how it was achieved. You can see the destroyed hardware. Glory to Ukraine,’ a Ukrainian soldier who gave his name only as Artem told Reuters in Storozheve.
A photograph posted online on Monday showed Ukrainian soldiers holding up the yellow and blue Ukrainian flag in front of a damaged home in Storozheve.
Reuters was unable to verify the number of Russian casualties, although corpses were still strewn across the road and nearby fields.
Storozheve is one of a cluster of settlements near the Mokry Yali river that Ukraine says its troops have captured since their counteroffensive began.
Reuters also reached the nearby village of Neskuchne on Tuesday, providing the first independent confirmation of the Ukrainian advances since Kyiv began the counteroffensive.
A destroyed Russian a BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle is seen near the front line in the newly liberated village Storozheve in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, June 14
Storozheve had been occupied by Russian forces since March 2022, one month after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Pictured: The body of a slain Russian soldier is seen lying on the side of a road running through the village in this June 14 photograph
Some of the dead Russian soldiers lay on the dusty ground beside the husks of their vehicles (pictured) when Reuters journalists reached the village on Wednesday
The body of a Russian soldier is seen near a destroyed Russian tank, on June 14 in Storozheve
A Russian uniform cap is seen on a road, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the front line in the newly liberated village Storozheve in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 14
After a week of heavy fighting, the real tests of Kyiv’s counteroffensive lie ahead, with Ukrainian troops some distance from Russia’s main defensive line and the bulk of forces prepared for the push still on standby.
Ukraine struck in two areas along the southeastern front last week as it began the main phase of its long-awaited operation, reporting seven retaken villages but also taking losses including Western infantry fighting vehicles and tanks.
‘On both sides, a lot of it’s going to come down to attrition,’ said Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and among analysts who have reported losses on both sides based on satellite and photographic evidence.
‘The risk for them (the Ukrainians) is that before they get to that (Russian) defensive line, they take too much attrition and it’ll be too tough to breach it and exploit it.’
President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Western equipment like battle tanks and armoured vehicles should help protect the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.
Russia has prepared thousands of defensive positions from the edge of western Russia all the way to occupied Crimea on the Black Sea, including minefields, anti-tank ditches, rows of concrete ‘dragon’s teeth’ barricades and trenches.
The positions, reviewed by Reuters using satellite imagery in April, are heavily concentrated in the strategically important south where Kyiv may aim to cut Russia’s land bridge to Crimea and split the Kremlin’s forces.
Ukraine, which has the bulk of its counteroffensive forces in the wings, can watch where Moscow commits troops to shore up its lines and strike in more thinly-defended areas, including in the east, military analysts said.
Ukrainian service members check a destroyed Russian a BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle near the front line in the newly liberated village Storozheve in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 14
A Ukrainian self-propelled howitzer Caesar is seen near the front line in the newly liberated village Storozheve in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 14
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A destroyed homestead is seen in Storozheve on June 14, which was recently liberated
Ukraine has been preparing for the counteroffensive for at least six months after recapturing the major southwestern city of Kherson in November, a swathe of Kharkiv region in September and forcing forces back from around Kyiv in April.
The military created 12 armoured brigades for the operation, nine of them trained and equipped by the West, analysts say.
A brigade typically comprises at least 3,500-4,000 troops. Ukraine has said it formed eight assault brigades of 40,000 soldiers drafted by the Interior Ministry.
Konrad Muzyka, a Poland-based military analyst who tracks the war closely, said only three of the 12 brigades had been seen in combat in the southeast so far.
The main thrusts have come near the Kyiv-controlled town of Orikhiv in Zaporizhzhia region and Velyka Novosilka in Donetsk region, about 80 km to the east.
Those thrusts may indicate Ukraine’s generals have their eye on Tokmak, an occupied town in Zaporizhzia region some 25 km from the front line. A further 50 km away lies the city of Melitopol. Both settlements are heavily fortified.
Near Velyka Novosilka, Ukraine liberated a cluster of four villages – including Storozheve – Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said on Monday.
Troops have advanced up to 4 miles and seized 35 square miles, she said of ground along a 60-mile-long stretch of the southern front line. On Wednesday, she reported more advances of 300-350 metres in various areas over the last 24 hours.
‘They initially did quite okay,’ Muzyka said.
‘My main concern five or six days into this main phase is that the progress appears to have stopped. The momentum that they built up over the first couple of days is essentially now gone and we don’t know why this is.’
Maliar has also reported advances on the flanks of the eastern city of Bakhmut, which Russia said it had captured last month. Military analysts saw it as unlikely this would become the focus of the main Ukrainian offensive.
The counteroffensive is complicated by Ukraine’s lack of air power. Kyiv has lobbied the West for months to supply F-16 fighter jets but they are at least several months away from being deployed.
Kyiv has imposed an information blackout to help operational security, making independent battlefield assessments hard.
An abandoned pram lays overturned at the side of the road in Storozheve, June 14
A view shows the newly liberated village Storozheve, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 14, 2023
A house in Storozheve is seen on Wednesday. Much of its roof has been destroyed in fighting
Meanwhile on Thursday, Kyiv said Ukrainian forces intercepted one cruise missile and 20 explosive drones launched by Russia in its latest nighttime attack.
But three other missiles struck ‘industrial installations’ in the Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine’s centre-east, it said.
The statement came shortly after the Moscow-installed governor of Crimea said Russian forces had downed nine drones over its territory, without causing any casualties.
One drone nonetheless struck a village in the centre of the peninsula, breaking windows in several homes.
Drone attacks in Crimea, whose annexation by Moscow has not been recognised by the international community, have increased in recent weeks as Ukraine pursues a counter-offensive against Russian forces.
Kyiv has repeatedly said it plans to take back the peninsula as part of its efforts to regain territory since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022.
Ukraine has claimed some success with its counterattacks, while Russia has carried out intense nighttime strikes against major Ukrainian cities in recent weeks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday claimed his forces were inflicting ‘catastrophic’ losses on Ukrainian troops.
Ukrainian service members check a destroyed Russian a BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the front line in the newly liberated village Storozheve in Donetsk region, Ukraine June 14
A screen grab captured from a video shows Ukrainian soldiers as Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar (not seen) claims that Ukrainian forces have retaken control of the village of Storozheve in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on June 12
Russian soldiers are seen in a video captured near the village of Storozheve on June 12
A view of troops’ movement in Storozheve, Donetsk region, Ukraine, June 12
Images shared by Russian military bloggers showed destroyed or damaged U.S.-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and Leopard 2 tanks, headline items of military aid sent by the West for the counteroffensive.
Muzyka estimated Ukraine may have lost up to 15% of its Bradley vehicles and a few percent of its Leopards, though it was possible Ukrainian forces had recovered some of those vehicles and sent for repair.
Military analyst Jack Watling wrote for the RUSI think tank that it was too early to say whether the offensive had succeeded or failed.
‘We must refrain from premature pronouncements of success or failure,’ he said.
