Chilling drone footage shows how Vladimir Putin’s troops have razed a bustling old Ukrainian village into an apocalyptic wasteland.
Ocheretyne has been battered by relentless fighting and is now just a shadow of its former self.
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The town has been an excellent aim for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Russian soldiers have been advancing in the area, attacking kyiv’s depleted and ammunition-starved forces with artillery, drones and bombs.
The Ukrainian army acknowledged that the Russians have gained a foothold in Ocheretyne
Before the war, the town had a population of approximately 3,000, but now not a soul can be seen in the pictures as the conflict continues.
Last week residents rushed to flee the town.
Among them was a 98-year-old woman who wore slippers and walked alone for nearly six miles, supported by a cane, to reach the Ukrainian front.
No buildings in Ocheretyne have escaped the relentless bombardment and most appear to have been damaged beyond repair.
Many houses have been hit so badly that they have been reduced to mere piles of wood and bricks, and a factory on the outskirts has also been severely damaged.
The images also show smoke billowing from several homes and fires in at least two buildings.
Elsewhere, Russia has in recent weeks stepped up attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in an attempt to dismantle the regions. energy infrastructure and terrorize its 1.3 million inhabitants.
Four people were injured and a two-story civilian building was damaged and set on fire overnight after Russian forces attacked Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine with explosive drones, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Saturday.
All four, including a 13-year-old boy, were injured by falling debris, he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia’s state agency RIA reported Saturday that Moscow’s forces attacked a drone warehouse in Kharkiv that had been used by Ukrainian troops overnight.
He cited Sergei Lebedev, described as a coordinator of local pro-Moscow guerrillas, but his comments could not be independently verified.
On Saturday another Russian attack hit a civilian business in an industrial district of Kharkiv, Syniehubov said.
Initial reports indicated that four people were injured.
In the dark Odessa sea portwhich has been repeatedly attacked in recent days, three people were injured in a rocket attack on civilian infrastructure, regional governor Oleh Kiper said.
Ukraine’s military said Russia launched a total of 13 Shahed drones in the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions of eastern Ukraine overnight, all of which were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.
Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said Saturday that overnight attacks damaged an electrical substation in the Dnipropetrovsk region, briefly depriving homes and businesses of force.
According to Serhii Lysak, governor of the province, debris from the falling drones damaged unspecified critical infrastructure and three private homes, one of which caught fire.
Two residents, a man and a woman, were rushed to the hospital.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said early Saturday that its forces overnight shot down four long-range ATACMS missiles provided by the United States over the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The ministry did not provide further details.
Ukraine has recently begun using missiles, secretly provided by the United States, to attack Russian-controlled areas, including a military airfield in Crimea and another area east of the occupied city of Berdyansk, US officials said last week.
Long sought by Ukrainian leaders, the new missiles give Ukraine nearly double the strike range of up to 190 miles longer than it had with the medium-range version of the weapons it received from the United States last October. .
A Ukrainian drone also damaged telecommunications infrastructure on the outskirts of Belgorod, a Russian city about 31 miles from the Ukrainian border, according to the local governor.
Vyacheslav Gladkov did not say what the site was used for.
Hours later, Gladkov reported that five people in Belgorod were hospitalized, with shrapnel wounds and other injuries, after a strong explosion on Saturday that also damaged about 30 private facilities. homes and caused two fires.
He did not immediately clarify what caused the explosions.
It comes as Ukraine bombed another major Russian oil refinery with a kamikaze drone attack, with the explosions sparking a massive inferno near Moscow.
Dramatic video from the scene showed flames burning at energy giant Rosneft’s facilities in the city of Ryazan on Wednesday.
Residents of Ryazan, located 200 kilometers southeast of Moscow, are said to have heard the rumble of drones around 3 a.m.
Two explosions followed the sound, causing the inferno.
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