Ukrainian civilians have also accused drunken Russian forces of marauding and abducting people. In Trostyanets – a settlement in the eastern Sumy region –  the bodies of two missing civilians were found with gunshot wounds on March 30.

“As Russian troops retreat from the Kyiv region after having sustained immense losses, they are looting houses of ordinary people. Electronics, clothes, shoes, cosmetics. This is not an army. This is a disgrace. We will never forget and we will never forgive,” Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian foreign ministry, said on Thursday.

West of the capital Ukrainian reporters drove into Yasnohorodka – a quiet place previously known for its family eco-park – finding it heavily damaged by shelling when they visited on Friday.

A woman who had stayed in the levelled town said she had remained to look after six dogs, four cats and nine chickens left by her neighbours. Picking her way past blast craters in her backyard, pensioner Evgenia Rozhkova pointed out the pond she had used for drinking water.

“Here is the pool, I am now taking water from it, boiling it, I cooked food for myself and the dogs in it,” said Ms Rozhkova.

Another couple picked through the ruins of their destroyed home. Sergei, 58, told nv.ua outlet that he was simply happy that “Ukrainian defenders have chased the occupiers away from the village” and that “now people do not hear such explosions’’.