A horrific sight was witnessed by Reuters journalists in the liberated village of Starozeve, Ukraine.

The road leading to the village, which was just liberated by Ukrainian forces, is paved with corpses of Russian soldiers and burned armored vehicles.

The gruesome images testify to the intensity of the fighting in which Ukrainian soldiers recaptured Starozeve and some other villages as part of their counter-offensive in southern and eastern Ukraine.

Some of the dead Russian soldiers were lying on the ground next to the remains of their vehicles when Reuters reporters arrived at the village on Wednesday. Others were left in the nearby fields, where they died.

Inside the village, the small, one-story houses along the road have suffered extensive damage from the bombing. Their roofs collapsed or have big holes.

An abandoned baby carriage was overturned on the side of the road. There was silence in the village: the inhabitants have left or are careful not to be seen.

“Three days ago we liberated Starozeve. You can see for yourself how this was achieved. You can see the damaged military hardware. Glory to Ukraine,” said a Ukrainian soldier, Artyom, who did not want to give his last name.

A photo posted online on Monday showed Ukrainian soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag in front of a damaged house in Starozeve.

Russian forces captured the village in March 2022, a month after the invasion of Ukraine.

The Ukrainians said that about 50 Russian soldiers were killed in this “broom operation” and four captured. Reuters was unable to verify the death toll, although bodies were still lying on roadsides and in fields.

Starozeve is one of the small settlements near the Mokri Yali River that Ukraine says it recaptured in its counteroffensive. Reuters reporters also arrived in the nearby village of Neskuchne on Tuesday and provided the first independent confirmation of the Ukrainian advance since the counter-offensive began.