Defeating the Ukrainian volunteer battalions from Ilovaisk was a hit and run action by the Russian Army

After ambushing and defeating the Ukrainian volunteer units that were retreating from Ilovaisk with the promise of a safe corridor, many Russian units retreat back to Russia under cover of heavy smoke screens on September 3rd, taking the same route that they came in.

Satellite images are kindly provided by @finriswolf.

Click to enlarge images.

To understand the level of destruction that the Russian Army created we can have a look at www.lostarmour.info. It is a Russian Propaganda site that mostly keeps track of Ukrainian losses. It also has some Russian units in its database, but only the ones that are obvious and undeniable. Also when in doubt, they label them as Ukrainian.

Nevertheless, since Ilovaisk was an ambushed retreat. most of the wrecks would be Ukrainian anyways.

Some labels appear as one, but when zoomed in, we see this (it is the most southern one in the image above):

In total 55 Ukrainian wrecks can be counted. And it is sure that not all of them are in this database.

For instance, at this (famous/notorious) location in Novokaterynivka at least 5 wrecks can be counted:

While Lostarmour only shows two. This was where a body was hanging in electrical wires.

North of Novokaterynivka this scene can be seen:

In the red circle two wrecks can be seen on the road (also not on Lostarmour). It seems like an actual Ukrainian column is passing those wrecks, trying to get home.

Lostarmour does show further down the road 7 wrecks:

Red rectangle = previous area with two wrecks

So it is very well possible that this small Ukrainian convoy was caught just a little further down the road after the satellite took the image.

A little bit more north of these positions there had been a Ukrainian camp in between the trees (image from July 17th 2014):

By the end of August/beginning of September it looked like this:

the camp has been abandoned, as well as an other camp nearby and a lot of 'debris' is in front of the trees. It is unclear (to me) whether these are (destroyed) vehicles or other items.

What IS clear is that the road between those two locations has been intensively used, indicating it was as well a supply route towards Ilovaisk as a flee route from there.

After creating this destruction the Russian Army quickly retreated to Russia again, leaving the are for the criminals they had armed to pretend as if THOSE had killed the Ukrainians.

Also see: Google Earth reveals how Russians crossed border to create Ilovaisk massacre

Also see: The fatal battle for Ilovaisk