Searching for dead Russian soldiers along the ‘road of death’

Ukraine claims to have advanced 49 square kilometers in the counteroffensive.

In one of the liberated areas, soldiers are hunting along the “road of death”.

– We search with our eyes and smell our way.

The Ukrainian counter-offensive on the eastern and southern fronts continues to progress slowly.

According to the military leadership, 30 battles have occurred between Ukrainian and Russian soldiers in the past 24 hours.

Totally destroyed village

A total of two square kilometers have been advanced in the past week. Since the counteroffensive began at the beginning of June, 49 square kilometers of the previously occupied areas have been retaken.

One of the first villages to be recaptured, just a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the start of the counteroffensive, was Blahodatne.

Image from the war front in eastern Ukraine.

Basically all the buildings in the village were destroyed in the fierce fighting when Russian troops were chased away. Ukrainian drone units were behind a large part of the Russian losses.

Hunt for the dead

– The Russian troops put up fierce resistance. They didn’t want to give up, a Ukrainian soldier told Radio Free Europe after the liberation of Blahodatne.

On June 11, the Ukrainian army posted pictures on social media of raising its own flag in the village again.

Only now is the area considered safe enough to go on another hunt for Russian soldiers.

This time dead ones.

Reuters has been following along a group of Ukrainian soldiers combing the so-called “road of death”.

Used in prisoner exchange

Wearing mouthguards, they stick sticks along the overgrown roadside. The hope is to find Russian soldiers who died during the retreat.

The idea is to exchange the bodies for captured Ukrainian soldiers. Both living and dead.

– We are looking. Looking with our eyes. And smells us forward, says Marine Volodymyr to Reuters.

The road they search is littered with smashed vehicles and demolished buildings. When they find a body, they must first check that it has not been detonated by their fleeing comrades.

– This is what we do: We collect the bodies. We organize exchanges for our prisoners who are alive. And for bodies. Our boys, says Vasylii, a 53-year-old volunteer in the search, to Reuters.

Found nine dead

– You know, so that a mother can go and visit the cemetery.

The group found nine dead during the hunt on Friday. The bodies were placed in a truck and taken for forensic examination.

Volodymyr told Reuters that the Russian troops fled Blahodatne in a hurry. The other road out of the village was impassable as it was heavily mined.

– They left the wounded and dead during the retreat and fled to Urozhaine. But they didn’t stay there long either. There was fierce fighting for Urozhaine, he says of a nearby village that was also liberated during the start of the counter-offensive.