As the crisis between Russia and Ukraine continues and the number of casualties increases, Ukrainian soldiers continue to search for the bodies of Russian soldiers along a deserted rural road known as the “road of death”, so that they can replace them with their colleagues, living and dead, as part of an exchange deal between the two countries, according to Al-Arabiya.
Ukrainian soldiers collect Russian victims from the road to death - Source: CNN
Russia and Ukraine «road of death»
The “road of death” is dubbed by Russian soldiers, because a large number of them were killed during the recapture of the village of Blahodatny by Ukrainian forces in the southeast of the country last June.
⭕️ معدات محترقه ومدمره تابعه للقوات الاوكرانية على طريق الموت "#باخموت"#الحرب_الروسية_الاوكرانية #روسيا #روسيا_اوكرانيا #Rusia pic.twitter.com/P9aUSGiWzF
— (عاجل)الأحداث الروسية🇷🇺الأوكرانية 🇺🇦 (@RussianArmy56) May 10, 2023
The Russian-Ukrainian battlefront has moved south, and the road is finally safe enough for the team of three Ukrainian soldiers to begin their mission in the liberated part of the Donetsk region.
As artillery fire resounded, Volodymir, a 50-year-old Marine said, “We’re going to search. We look with our eyes, we follow the smell.”
"Road of death" for the Ukrainian armed forces on the South-Donetsk direction pic.twitter.com/2Iu8nZU2Cc
— Sprinter (@Sprinter99800) September 10, 2023
The soldier added that the Russian forces had to withdraw from Belhodatne quickly, and that the only other way out was unusable because it was full of mines, there was an exchange of fire but they retreated very quickly, so they left the wounded and dead on the way, and fled to Uruguayni but did not stay there for long either.
Vasily, a 53-year-old volunteer, said: “This is what we do, we collect their bodies and arrange exchanges for our living prisoners, for the bodies and for our children.”
9 bodies found
Ukraine secures itself from Russia’s traps, so that soldiers use a rope to pull the bodies to ensure that the withdrawing Russian forces did not booby-trap them, and the group found 9 bodies during the search operation that lasted throughout Friday, and put them in a truck and transported them for forensic examination.
Russia and Ukraine are known to have frequent exchanges of prisoners of war, as well as of the bodies of dead soldiers since the beginning of the crisis on February 24, 2022.
