Awesome power of Ukraine’s new artillery laid bare by carnage at Kherson airport where Russian invaders built HQ

THE POWER of Ukraine’s new long range artillery is laid bare by the carnage at Kherson airport – where Russian invaders built a major headquarters.

Bricks and bits of mangled metal from the devastated terminal building were strewn hundreds of metres across the pan where passengers used to board Ryanair flights.

Terrified Russian troops scattered anti-tank mines and dug a trench across a taxi-way in a doomed bid to protect their positions from a stunning counter attack.

Rows of wrecked aircraft and abandoned choppers overlook abandoned Russian trenches and dug-outs.

Ukraine’s heroic defenders used US and British long range rockets to pound the Russian positions on the outskirts of the prized southern city.

Major Valentine, a Ukrainian combat engineer, said hundreds of Russian troops had perished in bombardments.

He said: “It would have been very scary here.”

He led a specialist bomb squad scouring the scene for unexploded ordnance.

Russian troops dug pits in to protect their tanks and trucks.

The wrecks of those that couldn’t hide were towed to a nearby salvage yard where a Russian howitzer artillery gun sat yards from an unspent Grad rocket and half a dozen artillery shells.

Putin’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu ordered a humiliating withdrawal after commanders said they could no longer keep their troops supplied.

Tens of thousands of Russians retreated to the east bank of the Dnipro river last week.