Buildings partially collapsed, some were pulverized… When the Russians left Borodyanka, northwest of Kyiv in Ukraine, they left a battered and disfigured city in their wake. Reconstruction is starting little by little, but some buildings have nothing left to do. Almost 40% of the buildings are affected.
>> War in Ukraine: what we know about the situation in Borodyanka, where the toll is “much more terrible” than in Boutcha, according to President Zelenskyy
“Four hours after we left, they bombed everything,” says Oleskander, who looks at his burned-out building with great emotion. “I came to see my apartment. My heart hurts. It’s on the seventh floor. Everything is destroyed, he hears sobs in his voice. It’s hard. We can’t imagine something like that could happen.”
Oleskander lived on the seventh floor of this building razed by the Russians in Borodyanka, Ukraine (April 29, 2022 photo). (FARIDA NOUAR / RADIO FRANCE)
The stairs are still there. We go with him. His apartment is charred. “Look! That was my bathroom, that was my kitchen. That was the fridge here, the bedroom there!” he describes. But behind the wall is emptiness. “I’ve lived here for 30 years, the kids, I… Everything burned down. The bomb went through the whole building.” Neighbors who stayed died. It’s too dangerous to go on. We’re going back down.
Inside Oleskander’s destroyed apartment in Borodyanka, Ukraine, April 29, 2022. (FARIDA NOUAR / RADIO FRANCE)
Oleskander sees his children’s godfather. Viktor, 56, lives in a small house that was also affected by the blast. “Come in!” he bids us and warns us: “Don’t fall. The roof is damaged.”
Viktor’s house barely stands, damaged by Russian bombing, in Boryanka, Ukraine (April 29, 2022). (FARIDA NOUAR / RADIO FRANCE)
“We left at 7:10 a.m. At 7:40 a.m. there was an explosion,” says Viktor in turn. In a corner of the room, a wooden board fell on the cot of her one-year-old and two-month-old grandson. Somewhat dazed, he repeats the question put to him: “What can I feel? We have to start our lives all over again at my age. We didn’t even have time to take the blood pressure monitor from grandmother.” We left dressed as we were. There we try to salvage documents, photos. What can we do? Life goes on,” he sums up fatalistically.
Behind the destroyed house, Viktor’s garden is miraculously intact, protected by the nearly collapsed garage. Like a symbol, like a sign that despite the tragedy, we must carry on. “And that’s nothing. I have my iris garden!” exclaims Viktor, who doesn’t hide his pride. 300 varieties, one collection! You can come back at the end of May, he invites us. All of that will have blossomed. there is war, but life goes on like that.”
In Borodyanka, Ukraine, behind the partially destroyed house, Viktor’s garden miraculously survived (photo from April 29, 2022). (FARIDA NOUAR / RADIO FRANCE)
In Ukraine, Borodyanka devastated. The report by Farida Nouar and Fabien Gosset.
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