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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Emma Graham-Harrison in Lviv and Isobel Koshiw in Kyiv

‘90% of houses are damaged’: Russia’s Syria-honed tactics lay waste Ukraine towns

Two women talk in front of a destroyed building in Schastia
Two women talk in front of a destroyed building in Schastia. Photograph: Stanislav Krasilnikov/Tass

Happiness lies in ruins. This small town – Schastia in Ukrainian – has been out of the headlines since Moscow took its brutal war against civilians to the country’s biggest cities.

But it is here, and in nearby Volnovakha, that the illegal tactics of terrorising civilians for military aims, honed in Syria and then brought back so close to home, have reached a grim high point.

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