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Russian troops have looted a children’s fairground train as they evacuate from Kherson, new video has suggested.
Footage shows the ‘locomotive’ – a small vehicle and carriage designed to look like a train – being escorted by two vans somewhere near the southern Ukrainian city.
Anton Gerashchenko, a senior adviser to the Ukrainian government, tweeted the footage saying: ‘The Russians evacuated (stole) a children’s train from Kherson.’
Putin’s forces are thought to be in the midst of fleeing from Kherson as the Ukrainian military approaches under the guise of evacuating civilians from the city.
Russians evacuating the southern city of Kherson have ‘stolen’ a children’s train, according to officials who published footage of the vehicle online
The train is hardly the first thing they are accused of taking. The remains of Grigory Potemkin, a Russian prince who lived in the 18th century and is buried in Kherson, have also been taken from St Catherine’s Cathedral.
Statues of Potemkin, a war hero, have also gone missing from the city along with monuments to other Russian and Soviet historical figures.
Trucks have also been seen driving into and out of the city’s art museum having taken ‘everything they could reach’, curators said on Facebook.
Ivan Antypenkom a Ukrainian journalist who is still in the city, wrote that Russia had taken ‘monuments, ambulances, firefighting vehicles, property of banks, hospitals.’
Kherson Regional Museum had been pillaged, he said, citing a video showing a truck outside it, while reports say tractors have been taken by Russians.
Ukrainian MP Mykyta Poturaev said: ‘You and I think that stealing equipment from cancer patients is something terrible.
A statue to Prince Grigory Potemkin, a Russian war hero who lived in the 18th century, has also gone missing from Kherson
Russian collaborators have confirmed that Potemkin’s bones, which were interred at a Kherson cathedral (right) have also been taken
A monument to Vasily Margelov (left), a Red Army General who commanded the Soviet Airborne Forces from 1954 to 1959, was reportedly looted from Kherson (right)
‘And for them there is no difference – steal a curling iron, steal an iron, steal combine harvesters.
‘They started by stealing combine harvesters and other agricultural machinery from the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
‘Now they stole the equipment from [a cancer centre]. Well, what can you call it? Is this human behaviour? No, this is barbaric behaviour. Savages are more civilised.’
Ukraine has been attacking towards the city of Kherson since early August, and in October made a major breakthrough of Russian lines.
Since then, conflicting information has emerged about exactly what is taking place inside the city – with conflicting reports suggesting Russia is both fleeing the city and reinforcing it, in expectation of defending it.
Last week, Western officials briefed that they believe Russia is preparing for an all-out retreat from the city which will be played off as a civilian evacuation.
‘Reinforcements’ arriving in the city are actually conscripted Russian troops who will be responsible for holding back the Ukrainians until their retreat is complete.
Moscow’s commanders have already withdrawn across the Dnipro river to the east and have left their men to hold their positions alone, the officials added.
While the retreat is not yet certain, they say preparations for the retreat are in their final stages.
Once the withdrawal is complete, Russia will take up defensive positions on the east bank of the Dnipro where they will hope to survive the winter.
A huge track was seen by the entrance on Kherson Regional Museum, amid reports that Putin’s troops are also looting from public collections of art and artefacts