Surprise victory in Irpin for Ukraine's outgunned military

IRPIN • Creeping forward block by block, Ukrainian soldiers in a reconnaissance unit on Tuesday found signs of a retreating Russian army everywhere: a charred armoured vehicle, abandoned body armour decorated with an orange and black St George ribbon, a Russian military symbol, and the traditional blue-and-white striped underwear issued to Russian soldiers, cast aside in a forest.

What they did not encounter was the Russian army in any organised state. After a month of savage street fighting, one of the most pivotal battles in the war ended this week - at least for now - with an improbable victory in Irpin for Ukraine's outgunned and outnumbered military.

By Tuesday, Ukrainian forces had quashed any significant Russian resistance in this strategic outlying town near Kyiv, the capital.

Pockets of Russian soldiers remained, posing risks. A firefight erupted in the afternoon when Ukrainian soldiers destroyed a lone Russian armoured personnel carrier in an otherwise empty neighbourhood, according to a commander.

But Ukraine's military had essentially recaptured Irpin, a town both strategically and symbolically important as the closest the Russian army had got to Kyiv, just 5km away.

At least 200 people have been killed in Irpin since Russia invaded Ukraine, its mayor said yesterday, adding that more than half of the city had been destroyed and it was not safe for residents to return.

"I think about 200 to 300 people have died unfortunately," Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn told reporters.

"Fifty per cent of the city is destroyed, including critical infrastructure," he said, adding that while Irpin was "100 per cent" under Ukrainian control, it was "still dangerous" and still being shelled by Russia.

Irpin was once a quiet and leafy suburb with a pre-war population of about 70,000. The mayor said all but about 4,000 civilians had fled.

Irpin's success in driving the Russians away may have factored in the peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul on Tuesday, when the two sides achieved what appeared to be their most substantive progress to date.

Moscow promised to reduce "by multiples" the intensity of its military activity around Kyiv, an area that includes Irpin, in effect acknowledging that its advance towards the capital had stalled and was at least in some places being pushed back.

With superior numbers and weaponry, Russia could always decide to mount another assault on Irpin. And Ukrainian security experts expressed scepticism about Russia's pledge to pull back.

Still, some people saw the recapture of Irpin as a moral victory, even if street fighting continues in the town and the military gains may be tentative.

Kyiv was always the biggest prize of all for the Russian military, as the seat of government and a city ingrained in both Russian and Ukrainian identity. But the Ukrainian military's performance in the vicious street fighting in an arc of outlying towns and villages became emblematic of the challenges Russian forces would face as they attempted to encircle or capture the capital.

"Today we have good news," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a videotaped address on Monday. "Our defenders are advancing in the Kyiv region, regaining control over Ukrainian territory."

Mr Zelensky said the town of Irpin was "liberated". He added: "Well done. I am grateful to everyone who worked for this result."

Here, as elsewhere in the fighting around Kyiv, the Ukrainian military achieved its battlefield success by deploying small, fast-moving units largely on foot that staged ambushes or defended sites with the benefit of local knowledge.

The reconnaissance unit that patrolled Irpin on Tuesday, a part of Ukraine's military intelligence agency, uses as its base a shuttered bar in Kyiv, now cluttered with sleeping bags, boxes of ammunition and hand grenades.

At dawn on a clear, cold morning on Tuesday, the soldiers strapped on body armour and pouches of ammunition, with a crackling noise of Velcro, then jumped in place to ensure their gear was well attached. The bar's stereo played Ukrainian folk songs.

"We are defending our land," said a commander of one of the two squads, consisting of eight men each. He asked to be identified only by his first name, Bohdan. Ukrainian soldiers still must search house to house in the city to flush out pockets of remaining enemy soldiers. "We move into a neighbourhood and if there is contact, we fire or call in artillery," he said of these operations. "If there is no contact, well, then it is clear this territory is again ours."

NYTIMES, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE