Russia's retreat from Kharkiv, another key Ukrainian city, reveals new evidence of atrocities

By Nick Paton Walsh, Natalie Gallón, Brice Laine and Denis Lapin, CNN
Updated 1718 GMT (0118 HKT) May 13, 2022
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/13/europe/ukraine-russia-kharkiv-atrocities-intl/index.html
Russian pullback in northeast Ukraine reveals new evidence of atrocities 05:07
Staryi Saltiv, Ukraine (CNN)Two convoys of civilian cars in one northeastern Ukrainian village speak of Russia's retreat from the area and the brutality it left behind.

The first -- three cars, laden with a priest, dogs, and troubled frowns -- is headed hurriedly through the village of Staryi Saltiv from the north, fleeing the violence as Ukraine pushes Russian forces out of Rubizhne. "We don't even know what's happening," one driver said. "We didn't stick around to find out."
Ukrainian officials said this week that they continue to push towards the Russian border, liberating tiny villages on the outskirts of Kharkiv, the country's second largest city before the invasion began. The Ukrainian advances threaten the symbolic embarrassment of expelling the Kremlin's forces back to their own border and while posing the strategic threat of cutting Russia's supply lines into Ukraine and its forces further south in the Donbas region. The advances have been swift over the past weeks.
The second convoy speaks of what Ukraine has found in Russia's wake -- five vehicles riddled with bullets, two torched to cinders.
On May 4, Ukrainian officials have said, this convoy was trying to leave the town when it was shot up by Russian troops. The bullet holes concentrate on some of the drivers' doors. Children's clothes and toys litter the area around the vehicles. Ukrainian officials said that four civilians, including a 13-year-old girl, were killed when Russian troops opened fire on this convoy.
CNN's escorts from the Kharkiv city territorial defense force say a tank shell hit one of the cars, explaining how its front section is twisted beyond recognition.
Moscow says its forces don't target civilians, a claim contradicted by evidence of apparent atrocities witnessed by CNN here and elsewhere in Ukraine.
A short walk up the road, out into the forest and hills nearby, are the remains of a Russian convoy. In the trees lie the remains of an armored personnel carrier, its tracks torn off by a rocket propelled grenade, our escorts say. Sleeping bags, prayer books, grenades and rations litter the leaves where the Russian troops slept, just outside of the village. Two Russian corpses were found there days earlier and have since been buried.