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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Shaun Walker in Kyiv

Escape from Irpin: frail residents helped to safety after month of hell

An injured woman evacuated from Irpin lies on a stretcher in an ambulance on the outskirts of Kyiv
An injured woman evacuated from Irpin lies on a stretcher in an ambulance on the outskirts of Kyiv. Photograph: Vadim Ghirdă/AP

Every few minutes, an ambulance or an unmarked white van arrives at a dusty courtyard on the western outskirts of Kyiv and an elderly, frail person is helped – or sometimes stretchered – from the back.

These are some of the last residents of Irpin, a commuter town a few miles from Kyiv. They are those who were too old, too frail or too sick to leave earlier. Instead they have endured a month of hell as Russian forces pushed into the surrounding area during the first days of the war. The town has seen heavy fighting and has come under intense Russian bombardment.

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