Irpin, Ukraine | From February 27 to March 28, 2022 the city of Irpin in the suburbs of Kiev To Target of daily bombardments by the Russian army. A year later, the invader left the region and rebuild of the city could begin. 24 hours went there.
“I lost everything. I even lost my family photos. Today I only have the memories I cherish in my heart.
On this day in March 2022, Tetiana Voynivska, 52, also said goodbye to her hundred rabbits, her dog and her cats and the large vegetable garden that she lovingly tended.
This house, his house, has been passed down from generation to generation. So it’s a bit like the Russians suddenly drew a line under his family history.
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From the beginning of the Russian invasion and the first bombings, Tetiana and her family hid in the basement of their house.
And then, on March 5, they were evacuated, thrown on a train with an unknown destination “somewhere in the west.” Traveling for hours, standing with no choice but to follow the movement.
According to information from neighbors who remained there, his house was destroyed by the Russians on March 18, 2022.
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Not much is left of Tetiana’s house.
Like many houses in Ukraine, Tetiana’s consisted of two parts: the main house overlooking the street and the summer house open to the outside and to the pine forest beyond.
After the main house was completely destroyed, she has been trying for several months to rebuild the summer house, have a roof and a place to rewrite memories.
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When we meet, his mother accompanies him to the construction site. Her name is Lyubov. Liubov means “love” in Ukrainian.
Her husband Ivan is not present. And with good reason: he is currently training with the Ukrainian Armed Forces at an undisclosed location. Tetiana does not know which front he will be sent to next.
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Tetiana Voynivska and her mother Liubov Lisovska
“As early as June, my husband began the first reconstruction work, but was quickly called up for combat. Today, therefore, we rely on solidarity organizations to continue the work,” explains Tetiana.
That day she welcomed volunteers from the Dobrobat organization for the first time. She is moved, touched by this wave of solidarity.
When working, the first step is generally to pick up the debris that has fallen all around the house. “We did that first,” Tetiana confirms.
How long will it be before Tetiana and her family can return to their homeland? “Hard to say…”
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Dobrobat volunteers at the Tetiana construction site
Solidarity is organized
The many volunteers from Dobrobat are already hard at work on the construction site. They are busy rebuilding the roof.
Dobrobat is an organization affiliated with the Office of the President and government services and is responsible for matching volunteers before they are deployed to construction sites across the country.
Among the volunteers present at the construction site in Tetiana, there are mainly Olha, Mykhailo, a Ukrainian who came all the way from the USA, and Ilia.
Everyone is there with a single motivation: to help, to be useful.
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Olha, 56, is from Kherson but traveled to Kiev on February 24, 2022.
“When the Russians left Irpin, I asked myself: How can I make myself useful? How can I help others?” she says.
So she turned to the organization Dobrobat and first collected rubble in the streets of Irpin.
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Olha, 56, one of the Dobrobat organization’s volunteers
Ilia, 25, comes from Kiev. He is preparing a doctorate in aviation law. Like Olha, he uses his free time to help.
“I have no military experience and, to be honest, it scares me a lot to think about going into the army one day. But I want to help, no matter how. So volunteering is the best way to change people’s lives,” he says with a big smile.
“My first assignment was physically, but also mentally very tough. It’s hard to hear horrible stories about Russian actions from people you meet. Coming from Kiev, it’s hard to imagine what these people went through.
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Ilia, 25, laughs at construction manager Mykhailo’s jokes.
Irpin, city of martyrs
Russian troops occupied Irpin for a month at the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine from February 27 to March 28, 2022.
Located in the inner suburbs of Kiev, Irpin was the last town captured by the Russian army before reaching the capital. Therefore, the Ukrainian army decided to blow up the city’s main bridge.
A total of 328 people died in Irpin. Among them a large majority civilians.
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In April 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the Irpin Bridge would become a memorial complex that would be preserved in its broken state to “always remind all generations of our people of the brutal and senseless invasion that Ukraine suffered “.
According to the city, 119 residential towers and 1,483 private homes were severely damaged by the Russian bombing; 16,358 residents became homeless.
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Local government had set a goal of replacing 15,600 residential windows by the end of January, but soon faced shortages of glass, steel, wood and other building materials.
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A total of 885 buildings were destroyed and over 12,000 damaged.
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The city estimates it will need €1 billion to fully rebuild all damaged or destroyed buildings.
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A leading architect
“Since February 24, 2022, around 8,000 people have lost their homes permanently. Our biggest challenge today is to relocate it permanently. So we have to provide them with housing, but also provide them with everything they need to live there, especially a job,” explains Mikhail Sapon, 30, chief architect of the city of Irpin and manager of its reconstruction.
In the first days of the Russian offensive, about 40,000 people left Irpin for other cities in the country or neighboring countries.
“Three months after the Russians left, 70% of our fellow citizens had already returned to the city,” continues Mikhail Sapon, who does not hide his pride. It was one of the biggest challenges for him and his administration.
“For us it’s the most important thing because people believe in us and that we do things right. I think our success also lies in the fact that we try to involve everyone, the whole city, and always find a way to help.”
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Even if the results on the ground are not as quick as hoped, “the majority of citizens understand that we are doing our best,” emphasizes Mikhail Sapon.
“People are aware that the army has priority in war. All public finances are dedicated to the army.”
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Mikhail Sapon in his office at Irpin City Hall
“If your house is damaged, come here, you give us the information about the number of square meters of windows you need, the number of square meters of roof, etc. On our side we try to collect the materials from public and private organizations present here get, we help to provide the necessary manpower,” explains the architect, who claims to have been injured there for a year during the Russian offensive, even a bullet went through his stomach.
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For completely destroyed buildings or houses, Mikhail Sapon does not consider an identical reconstruction to be the right solution.
“Reconstruction as before is not always the solution, because people who are traumatized, who have lost loved ones, no longer want to live in this environment. They need something else, something to calm them down.”
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Mikhail Sapon in front of a map stained by Russian soldiers during their visit to Irpin.
rebuild a city
But how do you rebuild an entire city?
“After the Russians left, we put out a Ukraine-wide ad saying, ‘If you’re an architect or a construction company in Ukraine and want to help, please come to Irpin and we’ll try to work together,'” he says Mikhail Sapon.
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Over the course of a few days, more than 250 people contacted the city’s services.
“They all came to Irpin and waited here in the town’s main square. They asked us, ‘What can we do to help? Tell us!” We then divided them into several groups, then we distributed them among our different infrastructures: kindergartens, schools, water networks, public buildings, etc.
“After a month they came up with different projects and we chose from the proposed projects. And then we all tried to get funding or materials for these projects together,” explains Irpin’s chief architect.
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The main square of Irpin
The city will be rebuilt in phases. Only after all essential services (including water supply) were restored and stabilized and residents received windows and heating systems.
The city services could then turn to the implementation of larger projects.
For the next few months, Mikhail Sapon’s teams have two major priorities: rebuilding the city’s stadium and one of the largest schools in the area, thanks to the support of UNICEF.
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For several months, Irpin has also been inundated with international aid via the country’s official platform for funding the reconstruction, United24.
In addition, the international community is also being strongly mobilized for the city. Japanese architect Hiroki Matsuura, for example, has begun studying a full-scale reconstruction plan for Irpin, though there’s no sign of it being accepted. Italian architect Stefano Boeri also participated in the Irpin Reconstruction Summit project.
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Some renovation work has already been carried out.
rebuild a country
In August, on TwitterThe Ukrainian Ministry of Defense estimated the number of residential buildings destroyed or damaged at 140,000. Since then, thousands more have been gutted.
Then there is the cultural heritage, the bridges, the roads, the hospitals or the power plants destroyed by the Russian bombings. According to the UN, half of the country’s energy infrastructure was destroyed in December.
For its part, UNESCO has identified the damage suffered by Ukraine’s cultural heritage since the invasion of Russia. As of February 15, 2023, 105 religious sites, 18 museums, 86 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, 19 monuments and 12 libraries have been damaged or destroyed.
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The Stadttheater is still not rebuilt.
A report released in September by the Ukrainian government, the World Bank and the European Commission put the figure of $350 billion needed to rebuild the country.
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Some churches have begun to lick their wounds.
But it is difficult to make predictions because Ukraine currently controls less than a fifth of its territory and no one can predict the end of the conflict. The cost of rebuilding Ukraine could reach $700 billion under certain scenarios.
To this end, many voices are proposing the establishment of a new Marshall Plan, like that introduced by the United States to rebuild Europe after World War II.
This report was produced with the financial support of the Fonds québécois en journalisme international.