Bodies of Russian troops recovered in Kharkiv area

Russian troops were withdrawing from around Ukraine’s second-largest city after bombarding it for weeks, Ukrainian military said on Saturday.

It said Russian forces were pulling back from norastern city of Kharkiv and focusing on guarding supply routes.

As troops withdrew, Ukraine forces and officials continued grim task of recovering remains of Russian servicemen killed in battle.

At least 41 bodies were recovered from villages near Kharkiv on Saturday, officials said.

Ukrainian soldiers loed refrigerated train wagons with remains, ahe of a possible return to Russia.

Forensic experts were on hand to inspect bodies for means of identification, and to record a cause of death.

Once y completed ir tasks, remains were put into white body bags, before being loed onto train.

One Ukraine official on Friday said several hundred bodies of Russian troops were being stored on trains in capital and in several or storage trains elsewhere.

An official agreement to transfer bodies to ir homeland remains unresolved.

Kharkiv, which is near Russian border and only 80 kilometres (50 miles) southwest of Russian city of Belgorod, has undergone weeks of intense shelling.

largely Russian-speaking city with a prewar population of 1.4 million was a key military objective earlier in war, when Moscow hoped to capture and hold major cities.

withdrawal of Russian troops from Kharkiv came as grinding battle for country’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas continued.

Image: AP