Kyiv Oblast was among the first regions hit by Russia's full-scale invasion. Starting from late February, towns and villages near the Ukrainian capital had been suffering from the Russian shelling and bombing, as well as atrocities of the Russian troops, including rape and summary executions.
The Russian troops withdrew from the region on April 1. Immediately, the extent of destruction and human suffering brought by the occupying forces was revealed. According to the Interior Ministry, 720 bodies of killed civilians have been found in the Kyiv Oblast alone, and over 200 people are missing.
Now, once peaceful villages around Kyiv lay destroyed, the lives of their residents ruined.
Dmytrivka
Dmytrivka is a village of 2,000 people located just 10 kilometers west of Kyiv's borders, and south of Irpin, a satellite city of Kyiv. Dmytrivka experienced heavy fighting. The village had been under the Russian occupation for nearly three weeks. Russian troops were forced out of the village after a Ukrainian offensive on March 31.
Stoyanka
The village of Stoyanka is right next to Kyiv's western border, close to Irpin and Dmytrivka. Home to over 500 people, and sitting on the Irpin River, the village was a favored site for middle and high-income Kyiv residents.
Russian troops shelled and bombed the village for days, then rolled in the tanks. To halt Russian advances on the capital, Ukrainian troops destroyed the bridge connecting Stoyanka with Kyiv, cutting once prosperous settlement from Ukrainian-controlled territory for weeks.
Andriivka
The village of Andriivka, home to over 1,000 people and located 40 kilometers northwest of Kyiv, was under Russian occupation for 34 days. The village had suffered from fighting, with many houses getting damaged or ruined. Local citizens say that the Russians stationed in the village were robbing the houses en masse, stealing flat-screen TVs and valuable home appliances.
Buzova
Buzova, a village with a pre-war population of 1,500 people, was completely destroyed by Russian shelling, and later occupied. The U.K. Defense Ministry reported, citing Ukrainian intelligence, that a mass grave with the bodies of killed civilians was uncovered near Buzova after Russian troops had been driven out of the region.
Demydiv
Demydiv lies 10 kilometers north of Kyiv and was home to over 3,500 people before Russia launched the invasion. The village is now partly flooded due to the nearby Kyiv Reservoir being damaged by fighting.
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The death toll of a Russian missile attack against Odesa on April 29 has risen to seven as an injured man died in the hospital, the Odesa city council reported on May 8.
Vadym Filashkin said it was becoming increasingly difficult for rescue and humanitarian workers to reach those that remain due to Russian shelling, with attempts only being made at night or early in the morning.
The High Anti-Corruption Court on May 8 arrested in absentia Dmytro Sennychenko, the former head of the State Property Fund, Ukraine's Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) reported.
The 11 returned children included two orphan girls aged 10 and 13. The other nine children — four boys and five girls aged one to 16 — are half-orphans, Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
The authorities are "closely monitoring" the northern direction, as Russian troops have resumed active assault operations east of Kharkiv after military units' rotation, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
EU ambassadors agreed in principle on a measure using profits from frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine's recovery and military needs, the Belgian Presidency of the EU said on May 8.
Four people were arrested in India on suspicions of tricking Indian men into traveling to Russia for lucrative jobs only to be forced to serve in the military, the country's law enforcement agency said on May 7.
Ukraine has caught up with Russia in the production of domestically-made kamikaze drones similar to Iranian-designed Shahed-131/136, Herman Smetanin, the head of the state-owned Ukrainian Defense Industry company, said in an interview with ArmyInform published on May 8.
According to MediaZona, Serhiy Hulko was first arrested on April 3 and detained for 10 days. After his release he was detained again for writing "Glory to Ukraine!" on social media.
Jailed Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky is suspected of ordering the murder of the head of a law firm more than 20 years ago in Crimea, the Prosecutor General's Office reported on May 8.
Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed in the second and final reading on May 8 a bill permitting military service of citizens convicted of minor offenses, said lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko, one of the bill's authors.
The U.K. is to expel a Russian defense attache, saying they are an "undeclared military intelligence officer," British Home Secretary James Cleverly said on May 8.
An oil depot in the Russian-occupied city of Luhansk was heavily damaged in a fire that Russian proxies claim was the result of a Ukrainian strike, Luhansk Oblast Governor Artem Lysohor said on May 8.
Under martial law, Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 60, with some exceptions, are not allowed to leave the country as they may be called up for military service.
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President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law in 2023 officially changing the date of Ukraine's World War II commemoration to May 8, aligning it with most of Europe and indicating a full break from the Soviet-era holiday.
Ukraine intercepted 33 Kh-101/Kh-505 cruise missiles, four Kalibr cruise missiles, two Kh-59/Kh-69 guided missiles, and 20 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said he spoke with Cape Verdean Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva on the phone and "thanked him for his support for the peace formula and his personal principled position on the Russian invasion."