‘War Is War But You Need to Carry on Living’: The Beginning of the Rebuilding of Ukraine

A trip through the ruined towns around Kyiv is a story of resilience in the face of horror, finds Tom Mutch

The roads on the way to Kyiv are littered with the destroyed husks of tanks, empty trenches and the corpses of the Russian troops that failed to conquer the city.

It’s now three months since 24 February – the day we woke up to Russian missile strikes hitting targets throughout the city.

All I heard from colleagues and experts alike was that the city would be surrounded and captured in no more than 72 hours. Instead, to the world’s shock, the Ukrainians not only held out, but pushed the invading Russian Army back after six weeks of fierce fighting.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been travelling through the outskirts of Kyiv oblast – retracing the steps of the Russian assault. It is a story of some of the worst horrors seen in Europe since the Second World War.

But it is also a story of the heroism and bravery of the Ukrainian defenders and civilians who stood firm in the face of what the world told them were impossible odds.

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Irpin

Andriy was the owner of Stockholm Studios, a formerly a swanky apartment block in the middle of Irpin.

“They decided to execute me, but they didn’t want to look me in the eyes while they did it,” he said, describing when the Russians arrived. “So, they closed the door to the kitchen and fired five shots into it. Thankfully the door frame dispersed the shots and only one hit me in the foot.”

Andriy pointed to the holes in the door and then the bullet fragments in the walls of the kitchen.

“Eventually I climbed out the window that led back into the living room and my would-be executioner looked surprised. ‘You are alive?!’ he said. He decided not to shoot me again as it seemed to him that I wasn’t meant to die. I escaped to another part of Irpin the next day and then walked to Kyiv on foot.” 

The sleepy town of Irpin lies between Bucha and Kyiv. It was the closest Russian troops came to the capital city. Had they taken the town, they could have subjected nearby Kyiv to the same indiscriminate shelling inflicted on Mariupol and Kharkiv.