Kryviy Rih, Ukraine — Russia accused Ukrainian forces of staging a daring air raid towards an oil depot inside Russian territory Friday morning. The regional governor mentioned two Ukrainian helicopters attacked the gasoline facility in Belgorod, about 20 miles inside Russia, and video confirmed storage tanks in flames.
As CBS Information senior international correspondent Holly Williams stories, if true, it is a important transfer by Ukraine's forces, however there is not any unbiased affirmation and officers in Kyiv didn't declare duty for the assault.
Russian forces have been nonetheless attacking Ukrainian cities, nevertheless. They have been accused of blocking meals and medical provides from stepping into the besieged southern port metropolis of Mariupol on Thursday, and of blocking refugees from getting out, regardless of Moscow agreeing to open a humanitarian hall.
Russia has pummeled southern and jap Ukraine's cities, together with Mariupol, with artillery and airstrikes for greater than a month, however makes an attempt to push deeper into Ukraine with floor forces hit a wall, and in some locations, they have been pushed again.
Simply west of Zaporizhzhia, CBS Information senior international correspondent Holly Williams met a few of the Ukrainian forces who stood of their manner.
Within the farming village of Mala Shesternia, as in most of Ukraine, the Russian troopers have been unwelcome invaders. The residents have fled, however Colonel Serhii Romashko instructed CBS Information his males recaptured Mala Shesternia 5 days in the past, killing some Russians and capturing others.
Their garments and sneakers are nonetheless there, even their cooking pots. Romashko mentioned the Russians have been used as cannon fodder — despatched in with so little meals that they looted from the locals.
One of the crucial notable Russian actions this week was confirmed on Thursday by Ukraine's nationwide nuclear plant operator, Energoatom, which mentioned the final of the Russian forces that had occupied the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant had pulled out.
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk mentioned Russian troops who dug trenches within the still-contaminated forest round Chernobyl had been uncovered to radiation, however there was no quick affirmation of stories that many have been sickened.
The worldwide nuclear watchdog company, the IAEA, mentioned Thursday that it was nonetheless assessing the state of affairs at Chernobyl however it had "not been in a position to affirm stories of Russian forces receiving excessive doses of radiation" within the exclusion zone across the plant.
The Russian troops from Chernobyl have been reportedly headed towards Ukraine's border with Belarus. U.S. and British officers mentioned this week that, whereas the Putin regime mentioned it will "drastically cut back" navy operations round Kyiv and the northeast metropolis of Chernihiv to facilitate ongoing peace talks, Russia was actually anticipated to regroup its battered forces in Belarus and different locations underneath its management to stage a brand new offensive in jap Ukraine's Donbas areas.
As Williams reported, the Russians have struggle machines Ukraine can solely dream of, however Ukraine's forces are destroying them, together with two armored personnel carriers she noticed on a single stretch of highway close to Mala Shesternia.
Colonel Romashko instructed her three Russians miraculously escaped from one of many destroyed automobiles, and so they're now being handled in a Ukrainian hospital.
"We'll defeat them," he mentioned. "I really feel victorious."
Ukraine's resistance has additionally pushed again the Russians from the city of Irpin, simply north of Ukraine's capital Kyiv. However the price is obvious to see, with a row of physique baggage lined up alongside a metropolis road this week — individuals slaughtered in what Vladimir Putin calls his "particular navy operation."
In Mala Shesternia, the Russians additionally left behind lethal weapons, together with a area carpeted with anti-tank mines. An undetonated rocket propelled grenade sat within the entrance yard of a house.
Putin despatched his troopers in to seize a rustic that desires solely to be free — and his struggle is killing each Ukrainians and Russians.