Ukraine: In Kyiv’s suburbs desperate people are trapped, fearing for their lives
- Russian forces encroaching on capital Kyiv to encircle its 2.9 million people have flooded into suburban towns; residents ‘held hostage’ says Zelensky
- As the carnage mounts, citizen in the town of Bucha says Russia ‘destroyed my life, job, is killing my friends and colleagues just now’
A cluster of towns built among fir and oak woodlands to the northwest of Kyiv have long attracted the capital’s middle class. Now they’ve been turned into places of utter desperation.
Russian forces encroaching on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in a bid to encircle the city of 2.9 million have flooded into the suburban towns whose names are fast becoming synonymous with suffering.
From the first day of the invasion ordered by President Vladimir Putin, Russian troops aimed for Hostomel, which hosts a strategic airfield used by the world’s largest aeroplane, the An-225 “Mriya,” or “Dream,” now destroyed.
Heavy fighting soon engulfed the nearby towns of Irpin, Bucha and Vorzel. Thousands of residents are trapped in the basements of their homes and villas, fearing for their lives.
As Ukraine tries to establish localised ceasefires to allow the evacuation of civilians, the people of these once desirable neighbourhoods are desperate to get out. For some, it is already too late.
The plight of those just outside Kyiv is indicative of the toll on civilians across the country after almost two weeks of fighting. While Russia maintains it is targeting military assets, the Ukrainian government accuses the Kremlin of deliberately firing on residential areas in a bid to grind down not just Ukraine’s army, but its people, too.
In Hostomel, about 30km (18 miles) from central Kyiv, the town council head Yuriy Prylypko and his two assistants were shot while distributing food to local residents, the town’s council said on Facebook on Monday.