Nicolai was sitting alone at a picnic table in Irpin as a bombing took place near where he lives, a five-story housing project with no elevators.
Before the Russian invasion began, the place was inhabited by families of workers willing to live on the outskirts of large cities, such as Kiev, accommodated in buildings like the ones in that complex.
Through Hostomel, another city close to the capital, cargo arrives and leaves, civilian and military, not tourists or people traveling on business. On February 24, the first day of the war in Ukraine, the local airport was the first strategic point taken by the Russians who arrived in helicopters, with paratroopers.
Since then, the sound of bomb explosions, the presence of the military and the absence of a large part of the population have become routine on the outskirts of Kiev. The few civilians who have not yet been evacuated from the towns of Irpin and Bucha are elderly or sick people due to difficulties in getting around.
The avenue that connects the two municipalities, occupied by Russian soldiers on the first day of the invasion and now under Ukrainian control, is completely destroyed, becoming a projection of what could happen in the capital if Russian forces advance. As that road runs through the housing project where Nicolai was staying, the Ukrainian army built a barrier inside the site.
One of the obstacles will be a Russian tank, hit by a drone from Ukrainian forces and practically melted by the heat of the explosion, whose carcass is used to try to stop the invaders from advancing.
Across the street, two corps of soldiers wearing the famous Russian “telniachka”, a white and blue horizontal striped T-shirt worn by members of the Navy, paratroopers and marines, adopted by the Imperial Russian Navy in the 19th century, are standing. rotting, piled on top of each other, partially covered by a dirty, rusty, bent sheet metal.
After weeks of intense mobilization to evacuate civilians, Irpin was virtually deserted.
Volunteers transporting women, children, the elderly and sick people to the bridge linking the municipality to Kiev were replaced by a few police officers who scoured the streets for anyone who still needed to leave Irpin. Many of them are in basements of buildings without light or heat.
Amidst the void, cook Alekasander, 41, befriended one of the many cats seeking shelter amid debris and explosions. In the trench where the now Ukrainian soldier takes shelter, the kitty hides and warms up on his Kalashnikov rifle. The gun, he claims, protects them both.
Aleksander, who has Russian as his mother tongue and Russian relatives, says he never imagined that he would one day be at war with Russia. “We are at war with the Kremlin, not with the Russians,” he says, who says he feels betrayed by the country where many Ukrainians have family and friends.
The cook’s calm contrasted with the nervousness of Irpin’s armed militias this Sunday (13). With the evacuation of the city and the intensification of the fighting in the city of Bucha, mainly around the airport Hostomel, the tension between the members of these groups increased, and the reaction of civilians armed but without proper training becomes increasingly unpredictable and dangerous. .
Late in the morning, foreign journalists entered Irpin via the makeshift civilian rescue path under the wreckage of the bridge destroyed to prevent the invaders from entering Kiev.
From there, as many professionals are used to doing, they approached one of the volunteers who were transporting civilians to hitch a ride to the military base located in the housing complex, where they intended to cover the arrival of people escaping from the city of Bucha.
Upon reaching the checkpoint, American journalist Brent Renaud was killed after being hit in the neck by a bullet. Ukrainian officials said the journalists were attacked by Russian forces, a claim that could not be independently verified.
So far, central Kiev has been spared the worst attacks, but the routine of the war begins to stretch and repeat itself, increasingly taking the form of a conflict that will last for a long time.
