Ukraine retakes Kyiv suburb, as talks resume under shadow
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A woman holds a child next to a destroyed bridge during evacuation from the Irpin town, on March 28, 2022.
PHOTO: REUTERS
KYIV (AFP) - Ukrainian forces recaptured a key Kyiv suburb and desperately clung onto control of the besieged city of Mariupol, as negotiators prepared to meet Russian counterparts for face-to-face talks in Istanbul on Tuesday (March 29).
Troops liberated the suburban town of Irpin, Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said, wresting a key gateway to the capital’s northwest from Russian control.
Agence France-Presse journalists witnessed continued heavy shelling in the area and encountered fleeing residents, who described hellish scenes of bombs raining from the sky and people killed in cold blood while trying to escape.
“We saw those cars which tried to get out on their own, they were crushed by tanks, with people inside,” said 55-year-old Roman Molchanov, his voice cracking with emotion.
His sister added that the “Russian orcs” had “shot dead people sitting in their cars".
Troops liberated the suburban town of Irpin, Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said, wresting a key gateway to the capital’s northwest from Russian control.
Agence France-Presse journalists witnessed continued heavy shelling in the area and encountered fleeing residents, who described hellish scenes of bombs raining from the sky and people killed in cold blood while trying to escape.
“We saw those cars which tried to get out on their own, they were crushed by tanks, with people inside,” said 55-year-old Roman Molchanov, his voice cracking with emotion.
His sister added that the “Russian orcs” had “shot dead people sitting in their cars".
Western experts described the loss of Irpin as a significant setback for Russian forces, who are still trying to regroup and after a failed first attempt to encircle the capital.
It is now more than a month since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine on Feb 24, hoping to cripple or oust the democratic government in Kyiv.
The fighting has already killed an estimated 20,000 people and forced more than 10 million from their homes.
The prospects of a peaceful end to the war – or an imminent victory for either side – appear faint.
On the battlefield, both sides appear determined to press where they can.
Ukrainian officials still believe that Russia wants to take the capital Kyiv, dismissing suggestions that the Kremlin is focused on the eastern Donbass region.
Capturing “Kyiv is essentially a captured Ukraine, and this is their goal", said Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar, insisting that Russia was still “trying to break through the corridor around Kyiv and block transport routes".
It is now more than a month since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine on Feb 24, hoping to cripple or oust the democratic government in Kyiv.
The fighting has already killed an estimated 20,000 people and forced more than 10 million from their homes.
The prospects of a peaceful end to the war – or an imminent victory for either side – appear faint.
On the battlefield, both sides appear determined to press where they can.
Ukrainian officials still believe that Russia wants to take the capital Kyiv, dismissing suggestions that the Kremlin is focused on the eastern Donbass region.
Capturing “Kyiv is essentially a captured Ukraine, and this is their goal", said Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar, insisting that Russia was still “trying to break through the corridor around Kyiv and block transport routes".
On Monday, Russian attacks near Kyiv cut power to more than 80,000 homes, officials said, underscoring the continued peril facing the capital.
While Ukraine’s forces are counterattacking in the north, they are struggling to retain control of the southern port city of Mariupol.
Russian forces have encircled the city and have embarked on a steady and indiscriminate bombardment, trapping an estimated 160,000 people with little food, water or medicine.
At least 5,000 people have already died, according to one senior Ukrainian official who estimated the real toll may be closer to 10,000 when all the bodies are collected.
“The burials stopped 10 days ago because of continued shelling,” Ms Tetyana Lomakina, a presidential adviser now in charge of humanitarian corridors, told AFP by phone on Monday.
Local lawmaker Kateryna Sukhomlynova told AFP that unburied bodies line streets and residents cowering in basement shelters have been forced to eat snow to stay hydrated.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry called the situation catastrophic, saying Russia’s assault from land, sea and air had turned a city once home to 450,000 people “into dust”.
While Ukraine’s forces are counterattacking in the north, they are struggling to retain control of the southern port city of Mariupol.
Russian forces have encircled the city and have embarked on a steady and indiscriminate bombardment, trapping an estimated 160,000 people with little food, water or medicine.
At least 5,000 people have already died, according to one senior Ukrainian official who estimated the real toll may be closer to 10,000 when all the bodies are collected.
“The burials stopped 10 days ago because of continued shelling,” Ms Tetyana Lomakina, a presidential adviser now in charge of humanitarian corridors, told AFP by phone on Monday.
Local lawmaker Kateryna Sukhomlynova told AFP that unburied bodies line streets and residents cowering in basement shelters have been forced to eat snow to stay hydrated.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry called the situation catastrophic, saying Russia’s assault from land, sea and air had turned a city once home to 450,000 people “into dust”.
Hours before Minister Monastyrsky said that Irpin had been liberated from Russian forces, 86-year-old Olga Molchanovaan was evacuated in an ambulance.
But her husband Mykola, 81, is still in Irpin, declaring that "he'd rather die there, handicapped with crutches", said her daughter Agnesa Brovkina.
"I just pray to God for salvation. I pray every day for the soldiers who defend us. Let them have courage," Ms Molchanova cried, wringing her hands.
She raised her hand to her ear when anyone spoke to her, and her daughter explained that a month of fighting since Russia's invasion had ruined her hearing.
"My mother was deafened by a rocket. All the time, non-stop, shelling. All day and night, bombing, shelling, all of it," said Ms Brovkina, a 62-year-old office worker. "They want to destroy Irpin".
Most people have already fled the once quiet suburban town on the strategic northwestern entrance to Kyiv, leaving mainly the elderly and the sick to endure nearly a month of Russian bombardment.
After crossing a broken bridge across a river, the escapees are taken in ambulances to a dusty evacuation centre on the outskirts of Kyiv.
They have endured hellish conditions, but at least they survived.
Ten-year-old Misha Romanenko held his little dog for comfort after he escaped with his parents. An aid worker handed him a chocolate bar.
"It is important that I don't cry in front of him, then he holds up" said his mother, Ms Yelena Moisak, 41.
They had been depending on a well in their yard for water for days, and decided on Monday to finally flee on foot, before the military picked them up.
The future for them remains uncertain, despite Ukraine's claims to be making gains in several areas as it pushes back Russia's stalled advance on the capital.