there was no mass slaughter

Now the Russians have pulled out of this area, it is slowly being reconnected to the rest of the country. While we were there, the Ukrainian army fixed a temporary bridge over a river on the road to the capital, next to the ruins of one the Russians blew up as they were retreating to Belarus. Dozens of volunteers were helping out, lighting fires, making soup, cutting trees, digging up stumps and smoothing out new roadways