Gut-wrenching drone pics show Ukrainian city razed to apocalyptic wasteland by Putin’s forces on road to seizing Bakhmut | The Sun
CHILLING drone pictures show a ravaged Ukrainian city reduced to an apocalyptic wasteland by Vladimir Putin's evil forces.
The gut-wrenching images reveal the charred ruins of the decimated city of Maryinka in Donetsk where 10,000 people once lived.
The deserted city is now filled with mountains of rubble after being pounded by Russian forces.
No building has been left standing and relentless shelling has turned the city's trees into matchsticks.
Maryinka's police chief, Artem Schus, said Russian troops are continuing to blast the ruins to "destroy all cover, regardless of whether it is a civilian shelter or a military facility".
He said his city is "completely destroyed".
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The area had been evacuated as there was "no way for the civilian population to live there", he added.
"They destroy everything because, with their tactics, they cannot defeat our troops, and resort to the destruction of all living things," Schus said.
Maryinka has been a battleground for years after Russian first invaded Ukraine in 2014.
And just 70 miles north, fighting is raging in the ruined city of Bakhmut.
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Relentless Russian forces have besieged Bakhmut for around seven months as part of Putin's grinding eastern offensive.
Most buildings have been reduced to rubble and thousands of soldiers have died in street battles.
Russian military officials now claim the fight for Bakhmut is "close to its end" as Putin's troops encircle the city.
Rybar, a Russian military account on Telegram, said: "The Armed Forces of Ukraine are withdrawing forces from the central and western regions of Bakhmut.
"These efforts are only intended to buy time and delay the Russian units as much as possible.
"The battle for Bakhmut is close to its end."
Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who controls the Wagner force leading the Russian offensive, said "the whole front will crumble" if his troops withdraw.
In a video address on Sunday, he said: “Wagner is the cement… we are drawing the entire Ukrainian army on ourselves, breaking them and destroying them."
The Ukrainian military and city officials have insisted soldiers are holding back Russian forces from "fortress Bakhmut".
Ukrainian commander Volodymyr Nazarenko described the situation as "hell".
But he said there has been no order to retreat and "the defence is holding" in grim conditions.
Britain's Ministry of Defence said Ukraine’s army is "under increasingly severe pressure" trying to defend Bakhmut.
It said Russian forces had shelled most bridges out of the city.
Ukraine's military said its forces repelled 95 attacks on Sunday.
And Ukraine's air force spokesman, Yuriy Ihnat, said 13 kamikaze drones had been shot down overnight.
It's now too dangerous for the last remaining residents to flee the city.
One woman was killed and two men were injured on Sunday after desperately trying to escape over a makeshift bridge.
Speaking to CNN, Oleksandr Marchenko, the deputy mayor of Bakhmut, said "the enemy is striking the city with everything they can".
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But he insisted Ukrainian troops still control the city.
Moscow has said a victory in Bakhmut would be a stepping stone to completing the capture of the Donbas region – one of Putin's key objectives in his shambolic invasion.
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