“They are mining this whole area. Houses are being mined, equipment is being mined, even the corpses of the dead. “There are a lot of travel cables, a lot of other dangers.” Zelensky said efforts were continuing to clear mines and secure areas, but advised residents who had fled to stay away for now. “It is still impossible to return to normal life as it was,” he said.
Russians are accused of landmines
Chernihiv Governor Viacheslav Chaus on Saturday also accused Russian troops of planting mines as they withdrew from positions around the regional capital. “There are many mines. “These (villages) are scattered with them,” he told national television. On Saturday, the emergency services said more than 1,500 explosives were found in one day during a search in the village of Dmitrivka, west of the capital. As reporters went to Dmitrivka on Friday, smoke was still rising from the wreckage of the armored vehicles and the bodies of at least eight Russian soldiers were on the streets. Russia’s Defense Ministry has not responded to a request for comment on allegations of deliberate landmines. The victims of the Russian occupation and the fighting are also beginning to become clear. The bodies of at least 20 plainclothes men were found on a single street in the city of Bucha near Kyiv after it was recaptured by Ukrainian forces. “In order to slow down the advance of our units, the Russian occupiers are mining abandoned positions, development routes, elements of transport infrastructure and equipment that cannot be evacuated,” the government said in Kyiv.
Victims of civilians on the streets
The bodies were strewn on the street, wearing civilian clothes, with at least three carrying white sails. One of the men’s bodies had his hands tied, while another had suffered a major head injury. The corpses appeared to be on the road for several days. In the village of Huta Mezhyhirska, north of the capital, a Ukrainian journalist was shot dead while wearing his jacket. Maxim Levin, 40, was killed by two shots fired by Russian military personnel, the office of Ukraine’s attorney general announced on Saturday.
