THE ruins of a besieged Ukraine border town lie smouldering after weeks of devastating attacks by Russian troops and bombs.
The frontier suburb of Vovchansk was targeted by enemy soldiers in a surprise assault on May 10.
Since then, missiles strikes and bombing raids have flattened many buildings and turned the area into a no-man’s land.
Homes have been blown to pieces by a relentless bombardment and abandoned apartment blocks in the town centre are etched with the thick black scorch marks from infernos within.
Plumes of smoke continuously billow skywards as Ukraine’s brave defenders attempt to hold back the Russian advance.
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Surveillance drones took images of devastated Vovchansk on Tuesday — as fierce fighting continued on the ground below.
Thousands of Ukrainian troops were redeployed to the region after the border was breached at the start of a Russian summer offensive.
The town and its population of 18,000 bore the brunt of the invasion. It is now all but a ghost town and another example of the Kremlin’s military strategy of obliteration.
An hour down the road in the village of Staryi Saltiv, amid the constant thump of rocket attacks, we met Vovchansk resident Ivan Manakov, 60.
He and his friends fled as Russian troops rampaged through his home town.
Ivan, at the side of the road in his packed Lada, with a trailer carrying his fridge freezer, said: “We couldn’t wait to be evacuated and had our own car.
“Vovchansk is destroyed. My home is in ruins. I’ve got nothing left and I’m heading closer to Kharkiv to stay there. I’m homeless now.
“There’s almost no one left there. For now there are about 100 people left who are hiding underground.”
The World Health Organisation says some 14,000 people have been evacuated from the area.
Those who remain are mostly elderly, it is claimed. Some 189,000 who remain near the border with Russia face “significant risks”, the WHO warns.
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Until last week, police officers and volunteer groups tried to reach stranded residents. But the evacuation runs were suspended after cop Major Andriy Ladika, 41, was killed by a dive-bombing Russian drone.
Russia has advanced six miles into the Kharkiv province, but with huge battlefield losses, reports say.
And Ukraine is using an anti-drone rifle in its bid to bring down Russia’s Iranian-made Shahed-136 kamikaze drones.
The pilotless warheads have caused chaos across Ukraine — but the hi-tech rifle generates enough interference to make them lose contact with their operators.
It comes as Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky urgently appealed to Western leaders to provide the Patriot air defence system.
Recent aerial attacks on the city of Kharkiv — including one on a DIY megastore — left scores dead.
