Dmitry Nekazakov was walking his dog before he went to work when the Russian shelling started on Hostomel, a city on the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv. The sky buzzed with low-flying helicopters from which Russian troops jumped, while rockets rained down. It was 6:40 am on February 24, the first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and for almost a month, the bombardment there didn’t stop. Nekazakov said he spent 20 days sitting on the ground in his basement during the night. In the cold light of day, he and other residents in his neighborhood would emerge to witness the damage that had been inflicted on their homes, and devise plans to find safer places to shelter.
“For a long time, the shells were coming — the rockets were coming,” he said. The Russian missiles and rockets that decimated buildings, lives and homes were fired from a sprawling Russian base, hidden in the forest some 4 kilometers (around 2.5 miles) away. Now, only the remains of that sprawling military camp sit among the trees. CNN was shown around the camp by Ukrainian special forces, who are picking up clues as to what Russia’s plans may have been for the capital among the debris. (…) Chernysh said he was locked up in a shed after he had been forced to walk through a minefield. He said that Russian soldiers were mulling whether to douse him with gasoline and had threatened to take him to the crematorium. The soldiers shot all around his body as he was tied up, and constantly asked him what his last wish would be, he said. He sad he was left in the freezing shed for hours. “I was beaten on the arms and legs, below the waist. The bruises remain,” he said. I thought my leg was broken, I was limping. But I am alive and well, thank God.”
via cnn: An abandoned Russian military camp in a forest near Kyiv reveals horrors of the invasion