Agence France Presse issued a statement from Irpin after a Russian withdrawal returned it to Ukrainian control. The city suffered extraordinary destruction and an evacuation operation is ongoing.
The last survivors in the ruins of Irpin I have only one word to describe the Russians who retreated after one of the pivotal battles of the war in Ukraine.
“Fascists!” rages 58-year-old Bogdan as he and his friends walk a dog through a deserted city center free of bombing for the first time in a month. His friends nod in agreement.
“We heard mortar shots every 20 to 30 seconds. And that all day long. Only destruction,” the tent builder told AFP journalists who reached Irpin on Friday.
A damaged building is pictured in Irpin near Kyiv April 1, 2022 amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Photo: Ronaldo Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images
It used to be a chic commuter town nestled in the pine forests on the north-western edge of Kyiv. But Irpin repelled the full brunt of the Russian invasion and became the closest that Moscow’s forces reached the center of the capital, some 20 kilometers away. The city, whose once verdant parks were littered with corpses, is now back under Ukrainian control while Russian troops are hastily retreating from outside Kyiv.
The victory came at a terrible cost, making Irpin look more like Aleppo or Grozny than a prosperous satellite town in Ukraine. Hardly any building escaped the fighting unscathed. Shelling has blown up huge chunks of modern, pastel-colored apartment blocks. The misty streets are eerily empty, strewn with cars with shattered windshields and echoing with the sound of stray dogs.
“It’s the apocalypse,” says a Ukrainian soldier hitchhiking through the empty city.
People cross the Irpin River near a destroyed bridge as they evacuate from the town of Irpin, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, April 1, 2022. Photo: Gleb Garanich/Reuters
For the past three weeks, Irpin has been under media lockdown since the death of a US journalist, with Ukrainian authorities saying it was too dangerous to enter.
Now, near a downtown sign that reads “I love Irpin” with a red heart, the town’s few residents share how they survived more than a month of relentless bombing.
“We hid in the basement. They fired Grad rockets, mortars and tank shells,” says Bogdan, asking to be used by his first name only. “My wife and I came under mortar fire twice. But that’s okay, we’re alive and well.”
Rescuers are still recovering the dead from Irpin and placing them in body bags before taking them to the blown bridge connecting the city to Kyiv. The bridge is littered with dozens of burned, bullet-riddled and abandoned cars that rescue workers are trying to clear.
Ukrainian soldiers pass through a destroyed bridge at the entrance of Irpin near Kyiv on April 1, 2022 amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo: Ronaldo Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images