On October 4, 2022, during the Russo-Ukrainian War, the bodies of Russian soldiers who had retreated were abandoned on the streets of Lyman in the Donbas region of Ukraine.

　　On October 4th 2022, during the Russo-Ukrainian War, the bodies of Russian soldiers who had retreated were abandoned on the streets of Lyman in the Donbas region of Ukraine. They were still wearing their military uniforms and boots. Nearby, there was a pile of discarded Russian military uniforms, sleeping bags and ration packs. The Associated Press, which reported from Lyman, saw at least 18 more bodies of Russian soldiers that had not yet been removed. The Ukrainian military had apparently temporarily collected the bodies of Russian soldiers after the fierce fighting over control of the town of Lyman, but they did not immediately remove the bodies of the Russian soldiers.

　  On September 30, 2022, the Russian government unilaterally declared the annexation of four eastern Ukrainian provinces - Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, as well as Zaporizhzhya and Kherson Oblasts. By October 2, the Russian military had withdrawn from the eastern strategic town of Lyman, which they had been using as a logistics and transport base, in order to avoid being surrounded by Ukrainian troops. The Russian army abandoned Ukraine's major cities at a rapid pace, leaving the bodies of their comrades in the streets. More evidence of the military defeat of the Russian army, which is struggling to cling on to the four regions of Ukraine that it illegally annexed last week, was presented on October 4th.

     In the eastern Ukrainian town of Lyman, which the Ukrainian army has recaptured from the Russian army, the deserted streets are strewn with rubble, and there are boarded-up buildings and charred buildings lining the streets. Metal sheets hanging from the broken roofs are being blown around by the wind. There are almost no residents out and about. The population before the war was around 20,000, but the number of dogs was almost the same as the number of people. Two young volunteers from a Ukrainian humanitarian aid organization were carefully and quietly numbering the bodies of the Russian soldiers and searching for anything that could be used to identify them. They placed the bodies of the Russian soldiers in black body bags and left the battlefield.

Warning: Bodies of Russian soldiers were abandoned by their troops after their retreat, on a street in Lyman, Donbas, Ukraine, on October 4, 2022. (ADRIEN VAUTIER / LE PICTORIUM POUR « LE MONDE »)