IRPIN, Ukraine — As Russian forces were advancing on Kyiv in late February, the Ukrainian military tried to stall them by blowing up a highway bridge just north of the capital.
It may have helped. But it also slowed the exodus of civilians.
For days, crowds fearing Russian artillery sheltered under the ruins of the bridge as snow swirled around them and Ukrainian soldiers helped people — some with children or elderly or disabled citizens on their backs — traverse the icy Irpin River on a series of planks.
