Russia's retreat out of Ukraine leaves behind horror of shelling, destruction and torture

Ukrainian officials claim to be pushing the Russians back towards their own border, liberating more villages on the outskirts of Kharkiv, the country's second-largest city.

It comes on the back of the Russian retreat from the wider Kyiv area where the scale of damage gives context to President Zelensky's appeal for $7 billion a month in aid.

An hour out from Ukraine's capital and the world starts to turn to a crisp. It's a blur of bomb sites and the burnt-out remnants of the weeks of fiery war.

Truckloads of goods were destined for happy customers but were met with evil instead.

From energy drinks that lie wasted to the stripped-back skeletons of motorbikes that never saw the open road, a distribution centre shelled during the Russian occupation last month has been reduced to a mountain of mangled metal.

Olexander worked here for 13 years. He doesn't have words to describe what he's seen.

Around 1000 people worked at this bustling warehouse every day. When the Russian invasion started, most of them left the areas for safety, but a handful were here when the bombing began. Miraculously no one died. Olexander shows us where they ran for cover in the underground basement of the building.

Nowhere above ground was safe. And there are still fears that beyond the fence line unexploded shells sit lethal and quiet.

The road to Kyiv is a living museum of the Russian highway of hell. Everywhere you look you see war. Buildings with blown-out windows - if they're lucky to have kept their walls. Bridges that bridge to nowhere and forecourts littered in debris.

The deserted Russian tanks complete with discarded uniforms have become roadside tourist attractions for proud Ukrainians. But proud doesn't mean they are not scared.

Volodymyr lives down the highway in Irpin. He watched the Russians torture the people of his town every day for a month.

He doesn't think good things of them, because soldiers don't target civilians he explains. The Russians were desperate to capture Kyiv and topple the leadership. But Putin's people were met with an unexpected Ukrainian spirit and Kyiv has endured.

But surrounding it lies loss on such a great scale that it's hard to consider any of it a win.