‘Such a small little man’ — With scorn for Putin, Ukrainians return to Kyiv region after Russian retreat
is an independent journalist who has reported for the Christian Science Monitor, the San Antonio Express-News, Stars and Stripes, the Los Angeles Daily News and other publications. He was in Ukraine when Russia invaded in February, and he returned this summer. He wrote this dispatch for the Express-News.Yet as her mind grasped the possibilities of a new future, her heart longed for the country she had left behind.
Reports of dramatic Ukrainian battlefield successes in the country’s northeast in the last few days could embolden more to come back. Russian forces killed as many as 400 residents in Borodyanka before retreating. By the time Lury returned, the town’s population had plunged to 3,000. Her sons remained but their wives and children had evacuated, along with most of her friends and neighbors. Four people she knew had died.The invading troops had occupied Lury’s apartment building, and the thought that they could reappear fractures her sleep. But she draws strength from once again standing on Ukrainian soil.
A few days later, a friend sent the couple another photo. An artillery strike had reduced their house to a jumble of cinder blocks. None of the soldiers died, according to the friend, and the squad continued to occupy the basement until Russian forces pulled out of the Kyiv region a month into the invasion.
“We are proud that our home saved the lives of soldiers,” said Viktor, 44, as he stood in the charred rubble of his living room. He vowed to rebuild. “We are here because we want a strong Ukraine, and to be strong, Ukraine needs its people." The invasion hollowed out Irpin. The prewar population of 65,000 dropped to 4,000, and more than 300 civilians were killed. An estimated 35,000 residents have returned since early spring, inured to the air-raid sirens that remind them of the war’s proximity.
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