IRPIN, Ukraine — It was quiet on the bridge over the Bucha River. The edge of this northwestern suburb of Kyiv was close to the front line. Still, the Ukrainian soldiers stationed here kept an easy vigil, laughing and joking with each other as they gazed toward the north, where Russian forces were gathering to make their expected blitz into the capital.
The scars of a fierce battle linger here.
In front of the singed exterior of the now-shuttered Giraffe Mall, residents clutching grocery bags picked their way around the burnt husk and scattered detritus of a ripped apart armored personnel carrier. Its occupants weren’t far — not far from the mall’s service entrance the bodies of two Russian soldiers laid side-to-side near a piece of fallen, crumped-up yellow cladding.
