Ukrainians Say Russian Enemy Troops Are Moving Into Their Abandoned Homes

A brief reprieve came in the early afternoon, when the Ukrainians went on the offensive.

“We’re hitting them because they’re out of ammunition,” Anatoli, a 19-year-old Ukrainian soldier, told BuzzFeed News. “We can say that Irpin belongs to them. But now they are out.”

Kyiv has been trying to agree with Moscow on safe evacuation routes out of cities besieged by Russian forces where the shelling is heaviest. But the agreement largely did not stick, and civilians were deliberately targeted by the Russian military when they tried to flee.

There is no agreement between the warring parties for a safe corridor from Irpin, which is located in the north of Ukraine near the capital Kyiv.

Until Sunday, residents can leave the city by train. But then the Russians bombed the track, destroying the safest and easiest escape route. On Tuesday, the only way out was through the rubble of a bridge blown up by the Ukrainian army to prevent Russian troops from advancing with tanks and armored vehicles into Kyiv just 15 miles to the east.

Ukrainian soldiers told BuzzFeed News that thousands of residents were urged to leave immediately as Russian forces not only destroyed Irpin but also entered — stealing food, gas and other supplies — and seized whatever was left.

Anna, a woman in her 60s, told BuzzFeed News that if no enemy army had entered her family’s home, “we would not have left.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks his military will surround Ukraine within days and force Kyiv to surrender, but he underestimates Ukrainian resistance and resilience. Now the so-called “special military operation” is seen as one of terror aimed at destroying the will of Ukrainians by besieging their cities and shooting them randomly with rockets named after destructive weather events like tornadoes, hurricanes, and hail.

But in the face of Europe’s worst war in decades, Ukrainians have defied the odds.

Oleksandr Markushyn, the Mayor of Irpin, said Russian forces had sent him death threats and demanded the city’s surrender on Monday.

“I’m surprised that these monsters still don’t understand that Irpin didn’t give up, Irpin wasn’t sold, Irpin fought!” he wrote on Telegram on Tuesday.