- Ukrainian officials said civilians gave poisoned cake and alcohol to Russian soldiers in Izium.
- Two soldiers died and several hundred were injured, Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said.
- Izium is in the Kharkiv region, which has seen some of the worst bombing.
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Some Russian troops were killed and many others injured after civilians in the Kharkiv region administered poisoned food and alcohol, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.
The soldiers belonged to the 3rd Russian Motor Rifle Division, according to a Facebook post from Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate.
According to the Post, two Russian soldiers were killed and 28 were in intensive care after receiving poisoned cakes in the town of Izium. Another 500 Russian soldiers have been taken to hospitals for serious alcohol poisoning, the Post said.
Officials said the Russian government is writing off those cases as “noncombat casualties.”
The Post also said that Ukrainian civilians resisted Russian forces by any means available.
Insiders could not independently verify the poisonings.
Stories keep popping up about Ukrainian civilians defying Russian forces. Even before the invasion began, regular Ukrainian civilians were training for combat and learning how to make Molotov cocktails.
Videos have captured Ukrainians confronting and blockading Russian tanks, leading to images reminiscent of the “tank man” in Tiananmen Square. Last month, a grandmother in the capital Kyiv said she knocked out a suspicious drone by throwing a jar of pickled tomatoes at it.
Izium is in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, where the city of Kharkiv has seen some of the heaviest fighting and bombing since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24.
But the Russian troops have also suffered great losses since the beginning of the war. NATO said last week that an estimated 7,000 to 15,000 Russian soldiers were killed in the first month of the war.
Ukrainian officials also said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had regained control of areas around Kyiv.