Vladimir Putin’s private army of bloodthirsty mercenaries were last night accused of firing on innocent civilians as they tried to flee a besieged city in eastern Ukraine.
Fighters from the infamous Wagner Group have joined Russian forces for a fresh offensive in the Donbas region, launching attacks on the city of Popasna so fierce that local officials drew parellels with the siege of Mariupol, from which the last women, children and pensioners last night finally escaped.Amid fears that Putin would ramp up strikes ahead of Russia’s Victory Day parade tomorrow, Serhiy Haidai, the head of the Luhansk military administration, described a ‘terrible situation’ in Popasna, adding: ‘That’s where they threw the largest number of hardware and personnel, Wagner fighters. That’s where the largest number of missile attacks, air strikes is launched.’
Recent drone footage from Popasna, in the west of the Luhansk region where 50,000 people are living, shows a scene of devastation. A dramatic 22-minute video clip also shows Russian and Ukrainian soldiers firing and hurling grenades at each other from neighbouring houses before six Ukrainian defenders are captured and forced to lie face down on the ground.
Mr Haidai said civilians fleeing blackouts and water shortages, including 35 people on a bus, had been fired upon, while a 15-year-old girl from the city described having to take the wheel of a car when the driver was injured by gunfire as they sped away from Popasna.
Speaking from a hospital bed, the teenager, called Liliya, described veering across the road to avoid landmines and dead bodies. When the firing resumed, she was shot in the legs, yet managed to drive the car to safety.
‘We were driving and it turned out that the Russians were firing at us. Two men were injured, one very badly,’ the teenager claimed. ‘I had to get behind the wheel and take them to [the nearby city of] Bakhmut.
‘They needed help urgently so that they would not lose a lot of blood. My mother taught me to drive a car. There were mines in a checkerboard pattern and no way to pass, but I somehow drove there. Next to the checkpoint lay the corpse of a woman. Then I turned right and we were fired on again. This time my legs were injured.
‘There was nothing I could do. The car stalled, I barely started it. It was not easy for me, it was very painful. But somehow I managed it. I would not leave them under fire.’
According to the girl, her fellow passengers – three men and a woman – all survived.
Russia yesterday continued its aerial barrage across Ukraine. Four strikes were reported in the southern port city of Odesa, with targets including a runway and a furniture production plant. There were no casualties.
In Kharkiv, a 28-year-old civilian died in her home during heavy shelling, while in Sumy, a northern city close to the Russian border, a jet fired missiles at a Ukrainian border patrol.Ukraine is mounting its own counter-offensive near Kharkiv and yesterday claimed to have taken five villages from Putin’s forces. The city is the second largest in Ukraine and is strategically crucial to both sides.
Last night, Russia’s defence ministry said its missiles had destroyed Ukrainian aircraft in the south of the country, and destroyed Western-supplied military equipment near Kharkiv. The claims could not be verified.
In a sombre note, the director of the CIA last night said he saw no sign that Putin was prepared to back down, despite sanctions.
William Burns said the Russian president was in ‘a frame of mind in which he doesn’t believe he can afford to lose’, adding: ‘I think he’s convinced right now that doubling down will still enable him to make progress