This week in Ukraine - 4/9/22

Victim of Kramatorsk train station attack

Following the reports of bodies strewn in the streets of Bucha, there were reports that night ambushes carried out by a team of Ukrainian special forces and drone operators on quad bikes helped turn the tide of the Russian invasion, The Guardian reported.  Aerorozvidka is a specialist air-reconnaissance unit within the Ukrainian army, which has claimed to have destroyed dozens of Russian "priority targets," including tanks and command trucks.  Aerorozvidka was first set up by tech-savvy, university-educated Ukrainians.  The elite unit, which flies up to 300 missions a day, is crucial to the Ukrainian campaign.

Equipped with night-vision goggles, sniper rifles, and remotely detonated mines and drones, the team of about 30 Ukrainian soldiers approached Russian forces by riding on quad bikes through forests under cover of night.  Some of the drones used by the unit were equipped with thermal imaging cameras, and others were capable of dropping small 1.5kg bombs.  "This one little unit in the night destroyed two or three vehicles at the head of this convoy, and after that, it was stuck. They stayed there two more nights and [destroyed] many vehicles," Honchar said.

Next, we were given a  grim reminder of the price of war: Two Russian soldiers died and 28 are in the hospital after being poisoned by pastries offered to them by civilians near besieged Kharkiv, according to the Ukraine Ministry of Defense.  Two troops from the 3rd motor rifle division died after being given stuffed buns laced with poison, and Another 28 soldiers are in intensive care after civilians in Izium gave the poisoned gifts to the invaders  It comes after more than 500 Russian troops were hospitalized after drinking poisoned alcohol. The Defense ministry said that, "Ukrainians resist the occupiers by all available means."

In the middle of the week came reports that Russian soldiers are forcibly taking people from Mariupol to Russia after interrogating them in so-called filtration camps.  A woman told The Guardian she was among a group of roughly 200 to 300 people who were taken to Novoazovsk, Ukraine, via bus.  That’s when they recognized they had arrived at a “filtration camp,” a series of military tents run by the Russian military where those arriving faced interrogation and confiscation of personal items before they were eventually moved to Russia.  The woman said she had her photo and fingerprints taken, and was questioned about potential ties to the Ukrainian military and her opinion on the war before being sent to the Russian town of Rostov. Others have reported they had to hand in their phones and passwords, which officers then used to access their phone contacts and register them into a database, according to The Washington Post. 

Yesterday, Donetsk regional police said at least 50 people were killed and 100 injured in a Russian missile strike on a railway station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, where civilians were waiting for evacuation trains to safer regions of the country.  "Russia hit the railway station in Kramatorsk today," police said in a statement.  "The rocket hit the temporary waiting room, where hundreds of people were waiting for the evacuation train.  This is another proof that Russia is brutally, barbarically killing the civilian Ukrainians, with one goal only -- to kill."  Kramatorsk railway station has been a crucial hub for evacuation of civilians from the Donbas region.