Amid Ukraine's startling gains, liberated villages describe Russian troops dropping rifles

[brooklynite]

Source: Washington Post

ZALIZNYCHNE, Ukraine — In the end, the Russians fled any way they could on Friday, on stolen bicycles, disguised as locals. Hours after Ukrainian soldiers poured into the area, hundreds of Russian soldiers encamped in this village were gone, many after their units abandoned them, leaving behind stunned residents to face the ruins of 28 weeks of occupation.

“They just dropped rifles on the ground,” Olena Matvienko said Sunday as she stood, still disoriented, in a village littered with ammo crates and torched vehicles, including a Russian tank loaded on a flatbed. The first investigators from Kharkiv had just pulled in to collect the bodies of civilians shot by Russians, some that have been lying exposed for months.

“I can’t believe that we went through something like this in the 21st century,” Matvienko said, tears welling.

The hasty flight of Russians from the village was part of a stunning new reality that took the world by surprise over the weekend: The invaders of February are on the run in some parts of Ukraine they seized early in the conflict.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/11/kharkiv-liberated-retreat-izyum-russia/

[Gore1FL]

1. This weekend has been so filled with fantastic Ukraine news regarding the counter offensive.

It's when we get to read sentences like "The first investigators from Kharkiv had just pulled in to collect the bodies of civilians shot by Russians, some that have been lying exposed for months." that the horror sets in.

I am glad the Ukrainian forces are putting an end to this.

Thanks for sharing the link.

[brooklynite]

2. The concern is that Putin will launch a retaliatory action against Europe...

...cutting off their energy supplies.

[Jarqui]

3. He's cornered. He's not done yet.

Hopefully, they'll take him out.

[3auld6phart]

14. One can

Hope That ,that asshole from the gulag does not go nuclear.
Hopefully the military or the other powers that be in Russia
take him out soon. He is a dangerous feckin’ idiot.

[mitch96]

4. My fear is, like a trapped rat he will do something rash like throw a few nukes in the mix....

That would suck and how would the world react? If he DOES decide to throw a nuke I hope saner minds will prevail...
m

[NBachers]

8. There must be strategic planning worked out for this possibility, but I don't know what it would be.

[progree]

9. Yes, a tactical nuke here and there against Ukrainian military targets is not beyond

the realm of possibility in my mind. I think about it all the time.

[AZLD4Candidate]

11. Nope. He'd launch at Kyiv and Odessa. If I can't have it, neither can they and no one else will.

[Delphinus]

13. That is

pretty much what I said to my husband last night.

[Gore1FL]

5. I can see that, but only as the response of a man who is suicidal.

That may be exactly Vlad Putin, In may be exactly not him.

I am not sure where he "is at" mentally and emotionally, but it seems that any attack on Europe at this point is essentially a "Suicide by Cop" move.

[speak easy]

10. The ultra long tables suggest to me

that Putin is afraid of death.

[PatSeg]

6. Wow, what great news!

[Bayard]

7. I'm feeling very hopeful about Ukraine's chances lately

But the war crimes committed by Russian troops will be staggering.

[ck4829]

12. The "special military operation" must hit differently when you're encountering soldiers and not kids