Sick Russian troops plant deadly booby traps in washing machines and among corpses in bid to kill innocent Ukrainians
SICK Russian troops have planted deadly traps in washing machines and among corpses in a bid to kill innocent Ukrainians, officials have claimed.
Mad Vlad's retreating forces have placed explosives in car trunks, booby-trapped trees, and planted grenades under dead bodies in Kyiv and Mariupol, Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The ministry accused Russia of deliberately targeting innocent civilians, saying it was "in war not only with the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but also fights against the civilian population of Ukraine, grossly violating the Law of war".
It added: "While retreating Russia's military personnel is massively setting up booby-traps, banned by the international law, even on food facilities, private housing and human corpses."
It comes as an innocent man outside Kyiv was killed after opening the trunk of an abandoned car laced with explosives, according to the .
Oleg Naumenko died on April 4, days after Russian troops withdrew from the capital.
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"I died with him in that moment," Oleg's wife, Valeria, said between sobs. She learnt of his death the next day in Poland, where she had fled with their seven-year-old son and her mother at the start of the war.
"What was left was the car, with the door still open and a pool of blood and a big emptiness," she said.
Ukrainians are emerging from their basements and bunkers to find their hometowns in ruin and littered with thousands of unexploded devices left behind by fleeing Russian troops.
Nadiya Trubchaninova, 70, is one of hundreds of Ukrainian mums scrambling to bury their loved ones.
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Nadiya hitchhikes daily from her village to the war-torn town of Bucha in a bid to bring her adult son's body home for burial, according to .
Weapons researchers shared photos online from formerly besieged towns show mines banned by most countries scattered along roads, as well as booby trapped home devices.
Ukraine's interior minister Denys Monastyrsky said other explosives left behind include jury-rigged bombs, which callous Russian troops placed in doorways, washing machines, in car windows and even under hospital beds.
"Wherever the occupiers stayed overnight, they would set up tripwires," Monastyrsky said in a televised interview.
"Explosives have been found under helmets, attached to doors, in the washing machine, and in cars.";
It comes as President Zelensky on Tuesday claimed his country was now "one of the most contaminated by mines in the world".
He called the acts war crimes and claimed Russian soldiers were being ordered to "kill or maim as many of our people as possible".
Human Rights Watch, an NGO, claims Russian troops in Kharkiv used landmines, forcing the Ukrainian emergency services to send a bomb squads ahead of them in liberated cities.
The organisation said on Tuesday it had found over 54,000 explosives devices since the war broke out on February 24.
Mark Hiznay, a senior arms researcher at the NGO, said it was "Russian military tradition" to leave booby trapped explosives in their wake.
He said Russia's use of antipersonnel mines were documented in more than 30 countries where its forces were involved, including in Syria and Libya.
"Leaving behind little presents for the civilians when they return — like hand grenades, trip wires, unexploded shells, pressure plates — it’s in the Russian military tradition to do that, " he said.
"We’ve seen it before and we’ll see it again."
It comes as President Zelensky warned the West needed to prepare for a Russian nuclear doomsday.
The battle-hardened leader told Vladimir Putin could use tactical nukes if his war in Ukraine continues to stall.
"All of the world, all of the countries have to be worried because it can be not real information, but it can be truth," he said.
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"Chemical weapons, they should do it, they could do it, for them the life of the people, nothing. That's why.
"We should think not be afraid, not be afraid but be ready. But that is not a question for Ukraine, not only for Ukraine but for all the world, I think."
