Russian troops near Kharkiv died after eating poisoned stuffed buns given to them as ‘gifts’ by Ukrainian citizens.
Two soldiers from the 3rd Motor Rifle Division died immediately after eating the delicacies served by the citizens of Izium, a Facebook post by the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine announced on Saturday.
Another 28 Russian troops are in intensive care after the poisoning with several hundred others also suffering from ‘severe illnesses’ after drinking poisoned alcohol given to them by civilians.
Two soldiers from the 3rd Motor Rifle Division died immediately after eating the stuffed buns
Russia has reportedly written the troops off as ‘non-combat losses’ as it begins to pivot its war effort to focus on fighting in the Donbas region of east Ukraine having failed to encircle Kyiv in the first six weeks of the war.
The sabotage is the latest in a campaign of civilian warfare by Ukrainians seeking to defy Russian attempts to capture their cities.
Izium is expected to see more combat in the coming weeks as Putin desperately scrambles to reverse his fortunes after a shambolic start to his invasion of Ukraine.
It is a town of strategic importance for Russia as it would allow troops to use it as a base for sustained assaults into the Donbas and allow Putin to resupply his troops with the town being near to the Russian border.
Control of the city would allow Russians to coordinate with forces fighting further south in the Donbas region and split the eastern front and isolate Ukraine’s southern forces from those fighting in the north.
Izium is expected to see more combat in the coming weeks as Putin desperately scrambles to reverse his fortunes after a shambolic start to his invasion of Ukraine
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The poisoning comes as mass graves of civilian corpses were discovered on the outskirts of Kyiv after the Russian retreat it was claimed yesterday.
Ukrainians claimed Russian forces ‘booby-trap corpses and execute civilians while retreating from recaptured Kyiv area’.
Territorial defence fighters told The Times they found the mutilated bodies of 18 people, including women and children as young as 14, in a cellar.
Horrific images emerged of bodies strewn across the streets of commuter town Bucha, which was retaken by Ukrainian forces on Friday.
The town’s mayor, Anatoly Fedoruk, last night said: ‘We have already buried 280 people in mass graves.’
The corpses of at least 20 men in civilian clothes were found lying along a single residential street. One had his hands tied behind his back with white cloth. A Ukrainian passport lay on the ground nearby.
‘All these people were shot, killed, in the back of the head,’ Mr Fedoruk said.
He added that many of the bodies had white bandages on them ‘to show that they were unarmed’ and that a 14-year-old boy was among the dead.
He claimed some of the victims had tried to cross the Buchanka river to Ukrainian-controlled territory and that entire families had perished, including ‘children, women, grandmothers. These are the consequences of Russian occupation,’ he added.
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