The video, captured by a CCTV system in Russian-held Kherson, appears to show one of the youths with the barrel gun, while the other appears to be holding an AK-47 assault rifle. Close-ups of the boys show them aiming the guns as if unaware they were loaded. As they near the end of the street, one of the pair accidentally sets off the grenade launcher, with the two scrambling to escape the blast. The video is believed to have been taken in early April. It is unclear how the two children obtained the weapons, but Russia has seized Kherson, the first major city to fall under Kremlin control, shortly after the invasion began on February 24. “This would never have happened, but the racists came there with their ‘measure’,” Anatoly Shtirlits, an officer in the armed forces of Ukraine, wrote on social media. Abandoned weapons and booby traps have been a common sight in Ukraine since the conflict began. Last week, Ukraine’s deputy education minister announced the introduction of classes to teach children to avoid landmines and other dangerous objects left behind by fighting. Russian or Ukrainian troops are often forced to abandon positions in hasty retreats, with Vladimir Putin’s troops reportedly retreating from the Kherson region ahead of an expected Ukrainian counterattack. As many as 20,000 Russian troops could be “trapped” in the southern region, Ukrainian officials claimed on Monday.
