STORY: This is what's left of Dmytrivka, a Ukrainian hamlet about 22 miles west of Kyiv after Russian troops advanced and occupied the area. We met business executive Leonid Vereshchagin and his wife here, who for a month sought refuge in a friend's basement. He calls it a living hell. Most of the 300 residents left, but around a third remained, co-existing with the Russians as their tanks patrolled day and night. "We were with them when they were visiting houses because they were trying to open cupboards, looking for something. I have a very brave wife, she was watching them, making clear that they should not take anything." A few days ago, while the Russians were patrolling the area, Ukrainian troops arrived. When the Russians returned, unaware, there was a fierce battle. “On 30th March at around six o'clock in the morning, that was the hell which started// From one side we were hearing the tanks shooting at us, and from the area of Bucha was a massive mortar shelling." Vereshchagin and his wife escaped in a car through the woods during a brief break in the fighting. As Reuters correspondents followed the pair through the hamlet, remains of Russian soldiers were seen next to destroyed tanks. Ukraine's Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin: “Enemy overestimated its potential around Kyiv at least. And we keep going forward, liberating our cities and evacuating our people. Now the first task is to restore public order, to provide supplies of water, food, electricity, communication." Russian President Vladimir Putin says the rationale behind the invasion, which Moscow calls a "special operation", is to "de-Nazify" the country and to protect Russian speakers living there. Vereshchagin, whose mother tongue is Russian, dismisses Putin's claim... ...saying that he has never experienced any problems being a Russian-speaking Ukrainian.