Vadim Sandrenko is among those looking for the remains of friends and family. His friend, Volodymyr, was at home inside an apartment building that has now collapsed when it was hit by Russian airstrikes. Shandrenko told CBS News that Russian soldiers would not let him search. Locals told CBS News that the Russians also blew up a bridge as they retreated from the city. In the nearby village of Termakhivka, locals told CBS News that Russian soldiers looted everything from clothes and silverware to refrigerators and washing machines. Mykola Oleksienko, the village head, said the Russians stormed the village clinic, leaving it damaged. Termakhivka is about 30 miles from the Chernobyl nuclear site, from which Russian troops have also withdrawn. Ukraine says the Russians have dug trenches in one of the most polluted parts of the exclusion zone, exposing themselves to significant doses of radioactivity. A Kremlin spokesman acknowledged on Thursday that Russia had lost a significant number of troops in Ukraine, calling it a “huge tragedy” but did not say how many had been killed. More
