12/05/2022
I went to Irpin.
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The city tortured by russians and the one that together with others stopped invasion of Kyiv.
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I decided that it was important to see what russia did to it with my own eyes. Though I saw just a small part of all what was there after russian soldiers left. Now the city is cleaned, demined, bodies of civilians are buried on the cemetery and traces of war are partly hidden behind greenery of the spring.
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Still, it’s a place where you can feel the horror of the war looking at destroyed houses and burnt buildings, imagining that someone had their lives there, maybe was inside at the moment of fire. People lived and loved in these houses, collected memories putting photos on the walls, played with children and pets. Now nothing of that is left.
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Now there is the smell of burning in the air, mixed with the smell of pine, which was always in Irpin.
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I felt hate, again this hate to russians for doing this to us, for destroying our beautiful, peaceful cities.
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At the same time the feeling of gratitude to Ukrainians who are very hard-working nation and start to repair everything right away. People come back to clean up their houses, backyards, clear rubbles, come back and fix deeds of our idiotic neighbor.
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It’s incredible how for a bit more than a month the city has been restored: a railway bridge was renovated and the road across the river was constructed right next to the bridge that was destroyed; water and electricity are renewed; roads are fixed; the grass is mowed, flowers are taken care of and parks look beautiful as always before. The city is recovering, hopefully someday it will be as great as it was. Though you’ll never recover lost lives.
