RUSSIANS MINE THE DEAD
VLADIMIR Putin’s retreating troops are booby-trapping dead bodies, Ukraine’s President Zelensky has claimed.
Soldiers leaving the outskirts of Kyiv have laid mines and tripwires in homes, and around equipment and even the war dead, he says.
But as the carnage in the country continues, there were reports last night Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin could be close to direct peace talks.
A Ukrainian negotiator was reported to have said Russia now thinks peace treaty drafts are far enough on to allow the move.
Meanwhile Russia yesterday vowed to target high-precision defensive weapons being sent to Ukraine from Britain, claiming they only worsened bloodshed.
Andrey Kelin, Putin’s UK ambassador, issued the warning after reports that a Russian helicopter
been shot down by a portable high-velocity anti-air missile called Starstreak, supplied by the UK.
An online video showed the tail being shot off an Mi-28N helicopter over Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk
region. UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace vowed to send “lethal aid” after Russia invaded in February.
Kelin told Kremlin news agency TASS: “All arms supplies are destabilising, particularly those menhad
tioned by Wallace. They exacerbate the situation, making it even bloodier.
“Our forces will view them as a legitimate target.” President Zelensky said troops had now taken back at least 30 towns, including Irpin, and
regained Kyiv’s Hostomel air base and the Chernobyl nuclear power site.
But he warned that the battle raging in the eastern Donbas region and Kharkiv remained “extremely difficult”. Mr Zelensky said: “The occupiers are withdrawing in the north… [it] is slow but noticeable.
“Somewhere they are expelled with battles, somewhere they leave on their own.” The MoD’s intelligence assessment said: “Ukrainian forces continue to advance against withdrawing Russian forces in the vicinity of Kyiv. On the eastern axis Ukraine has retaken several villages.”
Mr Zelensky said more than 3,000 people had now escaped besieged Mariupol. But at least 5,000 have died, and up to 160,000 are still trapped.
Sources last night said NATO plans to send tanks to Ukraine – and Polish T-72s could arrive within days.
As Russia vowed to pull back from Kyiv and the north, former British infantry commander Col Richard Kemp warned: “Encircling Kyiv may have been intended to fix Ukrainian forces and stop reinforcements being sent south and east.
“If [Russia] withdraw forces, that does not mean they won’t continue to attack Kyiv with artillery and air.”