Russian Grad missile bombardment turns Irpin into a ghost town

Irpin It used to be a wealthy suburb of Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, but most of its inhabitants have fled Russian bombing and it is now a ghost town.

The streets are littered with debris, a consequence of the Grad missiles that have blown up both high-rise apartment buildings and modest brick and wood bungalows.

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Sometimes the empty streets are so quiet that the sound of a woodpecker hitting a tree is louder than the distant canyons.

But other times there is the rumble of Grad missile batteries and mortar rounds being fired nearby.

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It is much more than Mykola Pustovit, a 69-year-old man, could bear. When he and his wife start a long walk looking for relative safety in Kyiv breaks to mourn.

Ukrainian servicemen carry rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles as they walk towards the city of Irpin. (DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP).

They were hoping that the front line would move away from Irpin“but now, after so many bombings, it is unbearable”.

Actually, the front line hasn’t moved for days. According to the calculations of the Ukrainian soldiers at the checkpoints in the city, between 20% and 30% of the district is in Russian hands.

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The next suburb Bucha, a few hundred meters further north, it is already in the hands of the invading army.

Violence is never far away. As AFP reporters crossed a makeshift wooden bridge into Irpin early Sunday, Ukrainian forces were removing the bodies of three of his comrades.

Ukrainian soldiers carry the body of their comrades on stretchers in the city of Irpin, northwest of Kiev, on March 13, 2022. (ARIS MESSINIS / AFP).

Later, a car carrying American journalists was fired upon near a Ukrainian checkpoint, killing the photographer. Brent Renaud and wounding the reporter John Arredondo.

After the incident, the mayor of Irpin, Oleksandr Markushyn, prohibited reporters from entering the city. but before the restriction came into effect, AFP was able to speak to some civilians who were unwilling to leave.

“This one bites”

This is the case of Iryna Morozova, who raises her hands in fright in surrender when AFP journalists approach, as if they were pointing a gun at her.

His house is badly damaged, and the one next door was practically destroyed, apparently by a missile hit.

A Ukrainian serviceman takes cover as people evacuate the city of Irpin on March 13, 2022. (ARIS MESSINIS / AFP)

But this 54-year-old woman says she can’t leave because who will feed her dogs?

He has the keys to a neighbor’s house where three puppies, a Golden Retriever and a German shepherd are now locked up.

“This one bites, we lock him in the cage. When we found him he was scared and trembling”, it says. The other dogs have a garden and play happily with visitors.

“They sleep in the kitchen. They play during the day. How can you leave them? Morozova wonders.

A couple walk down a street as they flee from the city of Irpin, northwest of Kiev, on March 13, 2022. (DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP)

The few remaining neighbors help each other and bring food to the elderly, but Iryna Morozova is more concerned about pets.

“There is nothing left here” he says in front of a ruined house. “Now we collect stray animals and feed them, because people abandoned them and left.”

After years working as a train conductor in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, Vera Tyskanova, 76, had retired on what until recently was a quiet street in a pleasant suburb.

But now, since an air raid in the early days of the war, which began late last month, he lives without electricity and consoles himself by feeding stray dogs in the neighbourhood.

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Source: Elcomercio