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Week 7: The Charred Cities Of Ukraine

April 07, 2022 16:06 IST

Thursday, April 7, marks week 7 of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Despite its superior strength and armaments, the Russian army has been unable to capture Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities.

Relentless Russian shelling and bombing though have devasted large swathes of Ukraine and reconstruction -- if it happens -- will take many years and thousands of billions of dollars.

Last weekend, when Ukrainian forces regained control of Bucha, a town near Kyiv, they discovered to their horror scores of civilian bodies killed by the Russian invaders in cold blood. There have been accounts of brutal rape and torture as well.

Please click on the images for glimpses of the war, day 42.

IMAGE: A damaged playground is seen next to a heavily damaged apartment building in Hostomel.
Hostomel was occupied for more than a month by Russian forces as they pushed toward the Ukrainian capital, before ultimately retreating to Belarus last week.
Photograph: Alexey Furman/Getty Images

 

IMAGE: Burnt Russian tanks and armoured personnel carriers are seen in a field in Hostomel.
Photograph: Alexey Furman/Getty Images

 

IMAGE: A burnt truck is seen next to a heavily damaged apartment building in Hostomel.
Photograph: Alexey Furman/Getty Images

 

IMAGE: A cross and a destroyed dome of a local church damaged by shelling are seen on a road in Hostomel.
Photograph: Vladyslav Musiienko/Reuters

 

IMAGE: Destroyed houses and vehicles are seen in Bucha.
The Ukrainian government has accused Russian forces of committing a 'deliberate massacre' as they occupied and eventually retreated from Bucha, 25 km northwest of Kyiv.
Hundreds of bodies have been found in the days since Ukrainian forces regained control of the town.
Photograph: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

 

IMAGE: A man, who says Russian soldiers broke his arm, stands outside his house in Bucha.
Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

 

IMAGE: Funeral service employees and police investigators work with bodies of civilians collected from the streets to local cemetery in Bucha.
Photograph: Oleg Pereverzev/Reuters

 

IMAGE: Firefighters work at a site of burning fuel storage facilities damaged by an airstrike in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Photograph: Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout/Reuters

 

IMAGE: A cat sits on the remains of a house destroyed by heavy Russian shelling and airstrikes in Chernihiv.
Photograph: Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters

 

IMAGE: A local resident rides a bicycle past a bomb crater in the village of Demydiv.
Photograph: Vladyslav Musiienko/Reuters

 

 

Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com

 
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