Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine — We have been to the entrance traces, and to cities not too long ago liberated from Russian occupation amid Ukraine's lightning counteroffensive. However you do not have to go that far to see the destruction Russia is able to.
We visited town of Zaporizhzhia, miles from any front-line fight, not lengthy after it was hit with a barrage of Russian rockets on Thursday. The explosions despatched emergency groups scrambling in a determined search for many who survived the strike. At instances, they discovered solely those that had not.
We arrived to search out firefighters dousing a mountain of twisted metallic and particles. Warfare crimes investigators had been already trying by means of the rubble. Residents stood close by, staring in disbelief.
Only a few hours after the rocket assault, it was not a rescue mission. The constructing in the course of a predominant avenue in an upmarket a part of Zaporizhzhia, a number of miles from any entrance line and at the very least 25 miles from Russian-held territory, was nonetheless smoldering.
Town of Zaporizhzhia has remained firmly underneath Ukrainian management, but it surely's the regional capital of one of many 4 areas Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed only a few days in the past.
Resident Olena bought a telephone name from her 70-year-old mom at 5 a.m. on Thursday, saying she was trapped beneath the rubble.
"She has damaged ribs, a lung contusion and damaged leg," Olena advised CBS Information. "However she is alive."
Regardless of the ordeal, Olena appeared remarkably composed. Her actual feelings, nevertheless, had been simmering simply beneath the calm veneer.
"I am very offended, very offended," she advised us.
"We'd like assist," she stated, begging the broader world to "cease this."
Mendacity on the pavement exterior had been physique luggage containing three of 11 folks recognized to have been killed by the Russian strike. With the search nonetheless happening Friday, it was doable extra harmless victims of Putin's mindless warfare had been but to be discovered.
It was the second main missile assault on civilians in Zaporizhzhia in only a week. Final Friday we noticed the aftermath of a strike on a civilian convoy that killed at the very least 30 folks.
Ukrainian troops proceed to smash by means of entrance traces within the south and the east, forcing the Russian invaders to retreat. Battlefield commanders inform us Russian forces are in "full disarray."
One of many elements behind the latest success, in keeping with a British intelligence report launched on Friday, is the huge variety of Russian tanks the Ukrainians have captured. The report estimates that at the very least 440 have been seized — amounting to roughly half of Ukraine's present tank fleet.
Infuriated by the losses, Putin has retaliated by launching long-range weapons into residential areas removed from the preventing, spreading terror.
What Russia can not seize, it seeks to destroy.
The concern, voiced bluntly on Thursday by President Biden, is that the Russian chief will really feel so backed right into a nook that he'll resort to much more deadly techniques in that technique, together with his nuclear arsenal.