Ukrainian military personnel wearing protective masks dig along a deserted country road, searching for the dead bodies of Russian servicemen, whom they hope to exchange for their own comrades, dead or alive, Reuters reports.

Ukrainians call this road the “road of death” because of the large number of Russian soldiers who died here during the battles for the liberation of the village of Blagodatne at the beginning of the June offensive.

Three months later, the front line moved further south, and conditions were finally safe enough for Ukrainian groups of 3 soldiers to begin operations around this liberated village in the Donetsk region.

“We will search. We will look with our eyes and smell,” 50-year-old marine Volodymyr told Reuters.

Reuters notes that the road here is littered with destroyed vehicles and crushed buildings. At one point, before retreating, the Ukrainian military used a rope to check that the body of one of the dead Russians had not been mined by the Moscow military.

“Look at what we’re doing. We squeeze their bodies. We organize an exchange for our captives who are alive and for the bodies of our boys,” says 53-year-old volunteer Vasyl.

“You know, so the mother could go to the cemetery,” he explains.

Ukrainians say that even the Russian troops have problems due to the mining of their own army

Russia and Ukraine have regularly exchanged prisoners and the bodies of dead soldiers since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24 last year.

The team, which includes Volodymyr and Vasyl, discovered 9 bodies during the search conducted last Friday. Each of them was loaded into a truck and taken to the medical examiner for examination.

Volodymyr notes that the Russian troops were forced to quickly retreat from Blagodatny, and the only way they could escape was impassable, as it was heavily mined.

“There was probably a shootout. But they retreated very quickly. They left the wounded and dead and fled to Urozhaine. But they didn’t stay long in Urozhany either. There were heavy battles,” says the Ukrainian military man.

On August 16, the Ukrainian army announced the liberation of this village in the south of Donetsk region, on the border with Zaporizhia region.

Images on social media show Ukrainians attacking retreating Russian soldiers with cluster munitions.

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