Dead Russian soldiers found rotting as Putin continues slaughter in the east of Ukraine

DEAD Russian soldiers were left rotting in their bunkers yesterday as Ukraine’s troops overran their positions — but a deadly new onslaught by Putin’s forces is feared within days.

The Sun witnessed scenes of carnage following a major battle outside Kharkiv — even as Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to press on with his slaughter in the east.

Bodies lay slumped in blown-open dugouts after Ukraine seized control of a ridgeline in the three-day battle for Mala Rohan — where soldiers are confident they can defeat Russia.

One said: “Whatever Putin does, we won’t surrender. We have won the battle of Mala Rohan. We are one step closer to winning the war.”

But it comes amid rising fears Russia will unleash chemical weapons to turn the tide in its bloodbath invasion after many defeats.

Dozens of Russian troops in T-72 tanks had dug into a treeline two miles outside Kharkiv and bombarded Ukraine’s second city.

They took the ridgeline on February 26 and stayed there for a month until Ukraine’s armed forces launched a bloody counter-attack.

Residents said the Russians — who were young and underfed — looted a nearby furniture factory and took rolls of carpet to line their bunkers.

Farmer Zlobina Lubov, 62, said they stole her food and shelled her barns — killing 140 cows, pigs and lambs in an inferno.

Ludmila said: “They only had four days’ rations and after that they started stealing. They were using shopping trolleys to take it all away.”

In the blitzed remains of their tree-line positions, The Sun found bottles of rum, wine and prosecco amid signs of a fight to the death.

Stretched over almost a mile were sodden scraps of Russian uniforms, empty rocket tubes and the scorched remains of tank rounds and rocket- propelled grenades.

Ukrainian sources said there were no Russian survivors and the debris told a story of how they died.

Two empty Russian helmets had single bullet holes in the back. A third was shot through the front.

In a break in the bracken sat a T-72 tank, its turret blown clean off.

A few yards away was a MT-LB armoured personnel carrier which the Russians have used to tow howitzer guns.

Farther along, were a scorched ammo truck, a second wrecked tank and an armoured personnel carrier.

All around lay scorched black tree trunks, torn apart by heavy artillery.

The Russians had dug themselves shell scrapes — shallow grave-like shelters to protect themselves.

But it was not enough to save them from the Ukrainian onslaught.

Larger bunkers — possibly command posts — were reinforced with sandbag walls and covered with branches and earth.

But most of the rooves had been blown off, revealing half-buried dead Russians inside.

One soldier lay on his back, only his face and his camouflaged torso still visible amid the earth which had fallen back in.

His eyes had been pecked out by birds.

EYES PECKED OUT

In a second bunker, a soldier was slumped on his front, surrounded by dirt and soggy ration boxes.

The other bodies were taken away, local soldiers said.

Ukraine also lost a number of troops but they refused to say how many.

In the bushes were a dozen empty boots, tubes of shaving foam, a credit card and instructions for a medical kit.

A metal drum of rations was marked with 6 MSR, suggesting the Russian soldiers were from the 6th Motor Rifle Regiment.

On the road below the ridgeline, a rocket was stuck in the asphalt.

And in the nearby hamlet — where a dozen people still dare to live — lay another blown up tank with a Z, Russia’s sign for invasion vehicles, on its flank.

The word NLAW was painted in silver letters on its barrel in a nod to the British-made shoulder-launched rockets which have helped Ukraine’s armed forces destroy hundreds of Russian tanks.

Defeats like the battle of Mala Rohan have forced Russian forces to retreat.

In the towns around Kyiv and Sumy in the north, Russian forces have completely withdrawn.

But it is a different story in Kharkiv, where a shell stands stuck in the road outside the regional state administration building.

The Russians still hold positions a few miles from the city’s ring road and an eight-mile Russian convoy was seen moving south through Velykyi Burluk, 40 miles east of the city, to join an assault on the Donbas.

The thuds of heavy artillery and Grad rockets rumble over Kharkiv day and night.

In the nearby town of Chuguiv, about 12 miles outside Kharkiv, medics tended a farmer who was shelled as he walked outside with his wife to milk their three cows.

Alexander Ignatov, 54, said: “It is a miracle I am alive.”

An airstrike on the southern edge of Chuiguiv left a crater 30 yards wide and blitzed two dozen houses.

In a nearby nine-storey block Alexander Tsibulynik, 38, said only he and his wife and an elderly neighbour were still living in the building after a bomb fell just yards from their front door.