Corpses of civilians in the streets of the town of Bucha, north of kyiv. /
The bodies of the Russian army soldiers are still lying in forests north of the capital and in Bucha the deceased civilians are still on the streets
After six weeks of war under the constant threat of a Russian assault, kyiv proclaims victory because there is no longer a Russian presence in the entire region. Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar told the media that “the entire kyiv Oblast (region) is now free of Russian occupiers.” The enemy troops failed in their attempt to carry out a lightning operation on the capital, they were also unable to encircle it and, finally, they chose to quickly withdraw their troops from the positions closest to kyiv.
Vladimir Putin is left without the coup that he was looking for in kyiv to put an end to the Government of Volodímir Zelensky and his men were unable to cross the Irpin River. This victory, however, is partial since thousands of Russian soldiers continue to invade Ukraine, the fighting is getting tougher on the different open fronts in Donbas and, according to the Pentagon, “the units that were in the areas near kyiv could be repositioning to try a new assault.
The north of the capital has become a graveyard for Russian soldiers, whose bodies are still lying in the woods and trenches. Driving along the rural roads and highways in the area means a tour of a museum of burned scrap metal. Russian tanks and armor destroyed by Ukrainian fire are the image of the strategic defeat suffered by Moscow at the gates of kyiv.
There are no longer any Russian forces in Hostomel, Bucha and Irpin, the three large urban centers. This last town has been the closest point to kyiv, 20 kilometers from the capital, where enemy troops have arrived. Before the war it had about 60,000 inhabitants, now there are only a few dozen left and, despite the end of the fighting, they maintain the same daily routine. At twelve noon everyone who can goes to the basement of the hospital where a generator is turned on for an hour to be able to charge mobile phones, flashlights or any electrical device. There is no electricity or gas and each one survives with the food they had saved because no type of humanitarian aid has arrived either.
«I worked in this hospital, I am a doctor and I have military experience because I had to serve in Afghanistan at the time of the USSR. We need urgent medical help because there are many wounded and sick to care for and I can hardly give them support by phone », laments Vasilyi while recharging his phones. This doctor assures that «the European military non-intervention does not surprise me because Brussels is afraid of Russia, that is why I want to say that they are cowards. We have to be much more active to stop the Russians.”
Sitting next to him is Tatiana, who nods to each word and wants to add that “this is not over, the Russian troops are no longer in the streets of Irpin, but we know them and we know they will return.” Tatiana has stayed with her husband and charges her mobile to be able to talk to her son, who lives in Latvia. Her relatives asked them to leave their house for a safe place, but they refused and have held out in a freezing basement for six weeks.
According to data from the municipality, some 200 residents have died as a result of the fighting, but the figure rises every day because the rescue services find bodies in basements and apartments. They leave them next to the portal, covered with a blanket and then pick them up with a van to take them to a deposit.
In the hardest days of the conflict, it was not possible to bury the deceased and for this reason the neighbors chose to do it improvisedly in gardens, parks or in the municipal school itself, which was also attacked on several occasions. Some of these tombs have a cross with the name of the deceased, others do not, they are a simple anonymous mound of earth.
In the central park of Irpín, between leafy trees and barbecues, María Sharapova rests. This 83-year-old woman was killed by a mortar on March 6 as she was sitting on a bench. She now rests two meters from the hole left by the projectile and from the bench where she keeps her bag with her scattered personal belongings. Oleksander walks past the wooden cross and curses Putin and the Russians because “they are beasts, real beasts. Look what they have done to us and the worst thing is that we are sure that they will come back. They did it in Chechnya and they will do it here, that’s why I ask that they leave the bodies of their soldiers in the field so that even if they serve as fertilizer for the earth ».
dead in the streets
The Russians left Irpin a week ago and since then the rescue services have not stopped recovering bodies and little by little they are removing them. In other recently liberated nearby cities like Bucha, the image is even harsher because there hasn’t been time to do it and they are still on the sidewalks.
The mayor of this city northwest of the capital assured that at least 300 residents were buried these weeks in a common grave. The local president, Anatoly Fedoruk, in statements to AFP, maintained that “all these people were killed by a shot to the neck.” He recounted that among the victims there were men and women. He also claimed to have seen a 14-year-old boy among the dead.
Many of the bodies had white bandages “to show that they were unarmed.” Ukrainian forces fully penetrated Bucha a day or two ago. The city was inaccessible for almost a month. The authorities announced a 48-hour curfew in all the liberated areas with the aim of removing bodies and trying to clean the cities of all unexploded ordnance.
Provisional bridges to facilitate the return home
Irpin is not a city reduced to rubble, but it has several neighborhoods affected by the projectiles and many streets are cut off by burned-out vehicles and tanks. The two great bridges that connect it with kyiv were destroyed by the Ukrainian army to stop the enemy advance and now there are only two minor steps to cross the river. The military are preparing to build temporary bridges to facilitate the return of civilians who want to see how their homes are.
Valery Ivanovich introduces himself as “an engineer and honorary citizen of Irpín” and recalls that “on February 23 we were celebrating my birthday and my whole family was here. The next day the war broke out and my children and grandchildren left, but I decided to stay with my wife». Valery wants to look beyond the war and talk about the political situation because “this situation is a consequence of the bad work of the Ukrainian and Russian politicians, government and diplomats and now we don’t know how it will end.”
From Moscow they sell this withdrawal from the kyiv region as a “drastic cessation of military activity” and assure that the primary objective from the beginning is Donbas, to the east of Ukraine. In Moscow they do not use the word war and speak of “special operation”, but whatever they say in Moscow, the Ukrainians do not believe them and that is why they know that the silence that now reigns in the sky of the kyiv region can be broken again anytime.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.