Dmytro witnessed firsthand how on 5 March a Rashist (Rassian-fashist) helicopter dropped a bomb on this buiding. It was flying extremely low, and dropped its lethal cargo on the road – the bomb ricocheted hitting the house. Only one person was in it at the time. The blast threw him out and he survived.
That was the day when Dmytro decided to evacuate his family. He says: «Just a few hours after the evacuation, a shell hit his house, and soon another one». However, the apartment of my interviewee miraculously stayed intact and is still habitable. However, he is going to bring back his wife and 4-year old son only after the city is restored (this is why he came back as soon as our armed forces liberated Irpin). He is convinced: a child should not grow up in the horror movie set, built by Russian ZZombies according to Putin’s script.
Indeed, black, charred skeletons of buildings, with crooked pieces of iron hanging on them and covered in shuttered glass, look like images of an apocalyptic blockbuster. A screeching sound of iron pieces contrasting with the exploded emptiness of broken windows serve as a soundtrack. A terrible groan of a gravely wounded Irpin can be heard even in the recording of our conversation with Dmtro. However, no one can escape this dreadful movie, because this is the reality. This is our Ukrainian reality in the middle of April, 2022.
Iryna, another building resident, is swallowing her tears when standing next to the burned building she recalls, how together with their husband they worked hard to buy a flat, how her family lived in comfortable and cozy Irpin Lypky apartments, how they dreamed that soon they would nurse their grandchildren, how their dog Senya played in the shady yard among the pines…In just a few days, the Russian horde had destroyed their quiet peaceful happiness built over many years. Together with her pregnant daughter, Iryna has managed to leave the city before the occupation. And on March 17, some friends who stayed in the city contacted her for the last time saying that their building was on fire.
The woman points to the burnt-out ground floor of her building, which once was a child day care. She says: the orcs were aiming at it with phosphorus shells. They scorch everything and the fire is impossible to extinguish.
Nowadays, inhabitants of Irpin Lypky apartments, as well as owners of other buildings destroyed and mutilated by Rashist invasion, are waiting for conclusions from experts. One of the founders of the real estate development company of this apartment complex, Roman Dridzhenko, hopes that Irina’s monolithic frame building can be restored. He says: the amount of destruction in Irpin is enormous. And to rebuild the city from the ruins is possible only with financial help from international partners.
Roman points out the irony: «Russians stripped my grandfather of all his possessions, and now they came back again to take everything from us…» However, now the Ukrainians have learned the historical lessons from their «elder brother». And now they are taking the final exam on the battlefield and are rebuilding their Ukrainian life.
