In Irpin, people are emerging to a wasteland of destruction where their neighborhood once thrived.
Outside of town, the roads connecting the small enclaves that bore the brunt of the failed Russian advance on Kyiv are marked with abandoned cars, including one that was badly damaged and had the word “children” taped to its windows. Remnants of weapons litter residents’ yards. Many homes and apartment buildings were hit badly by shelling, breaking windows and walls. Russian armored vehicles are still scattered about — abandoned or destroyed.
Before the war, Melnik, who lives just on the other side, commuted across the bridge each day to her job at the Irpin Vodokanal station, a water and sewage facility that turned into a military position. “When I came outside, they pointed three guns at me, but did not fire, because I told them in Russian to lower them,” she said. Once they did, “I was not afraid.”Russians parked their tanks and armored personnel carriers in her neighbors’ yards, she said. As artillery flew between their residential neighborhood and Ukrainian positions nearby, her house was struck and badly burned, destroying her roof and attic.
There is much work to be done before those who fled can safely return. Officials here are beginning the arduous process of demining and clearing these areas of unexploded ordnance, and imposed a three-day curfew over the weekend that will probably prevent any civilians from rushing back.Over the course of several hours, a team of Washington Post reporters heard only a single boom — a sharp contrast with the constant shelling that echoed through these streets just days ago.
Bit by bit, he found pieces of their bodies scattered in the debris — confirming his fear that they were dead. “But I had to keep digging,” he said. Her father and son were buried without even a priest present because of the constant threat of Russian attack. She wrapped them in blankets and said the funeral rites herself.
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