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Bees defuse Russian grenade trap in northern Ukraine: report

13.10.2022 15:15
Bees living in a hive in northern Ukraine have neutralised a deadly grenade trap set by Russian troops, potentially saving lives, according to local media reports.   
Bees living in a hive in northern Ukraine have neutralised a deadly grenade trap set by Russian troops, potentially saving lives, the belsat.eu website reported on Thursday.
Bees living in a hive in northern Ukraine have neutralised a deadly grenade trap set by Russian troops, potentially saving lives, the belsat.eu website reported on Thursday.PAP/Marcin Bielecki

Russian soldiers left the trap while fleeing the northern Ukrainian town of Bucha in early April, the belsat.eu website reported on Thursday, citing a local Telegram channel, Bucha Live.

Bees to the rescue

Bucha Live wrote, as cited by belsat.eu: “The Russians wanted to kill someone, but the Ukrainian bees came to the rescue! In a wood near the village of Babintsy, sappers from Bucha’s voluntary territorial army dismantled a trap which ‘the courageous soldiers of the world’s second army’ had left before fleeing the region in shame."

According to the Ukrainian sappers, Russian troops had wrapped two hand grenades together and attached them to a bee hive.

They strapped the igniters down with a pin and connected the hive’s lid with the grenades by means of a nylon thread, priming the explosives to go off if someone tried to open the hive, belsat.eu reported.   

However, nobody approached the hive for the next six months. In the meantime, the bees poured so much honey on the igniters that the grenades could no longer detonate, the Ukrainian sappers said, as quoted by belsat.eu.

Sappers’ warning

The sappers cautioned the public: “If you spot a dangerous object, such as a fishing line, a piece of wire or something that wasn’t there before, please contact the 24-hour emergency hotline immediately."

Russia’s retreating forces had left many mines behind, putting Ukrainian civilians in constant danger, belsat.eu reported.

For instance, on October 7, a 47-year-old woman suffered injuries after stepping on a mine while picking mushrooms in a forest near the city of Izyum in the northeastern Kharkiv region, according to belsat.eu.

Officials have warned the Ukrainian public that clearing the land of Russian mines and unexploded bombs will take several years, the website reported.  

Thursday is day 232 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

(pm/gs)

Source: belsat.eu, t.me/bucha_live