Nicolas Tonev (special correspondent at Irpin), edited by Gauthier Delomez
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, the town of Irpin, near kyiv, witnesses an intense battle between Ukrainian and Russian forces. Despite the ruins, some residents have chosen to return to their homes, such as Vassili, whom Europe 1 special envoy Nicolas Tonev met there.
Fighting continues in the Donbass, but elsewhere in Ukraine, some Ukrainians find the house they had left. This is the case in Irpin, a martyr city near kyiv, where the special envoy of Europe 1 Nicolas Tonev went. Residents discover a door on a ruin, witness to a house with gutted walls and roof. “Do you live here?” asks our reporter. “We live on the other side,” replies Vassili Tkachenko, 73, a retired technician from the aircraft manufacturer Antonov.
As of May 10, he returned to live in his house half gutted by the bombardments in one of the most destroyed neighborhoods of Irpine and has remained there ever since. “There, we restored order, and here it’s too complicated. It hit hard on the first day of the war with the missiles”, he says at the microphone of Europe 1.
“We are alive and we rejoiced”
However, sleeping in the room that remains habitable also means finding the Russian enemy. “There is no door, they shot at it”, breathes this Ukrainian. “Who fired?” asks Nicolas Tonev. “The killer whales. The Russian killer whales have settled here and we, in principle, manage to do it too. We are alive and we were happy”, develops the resident, with a smile despite the precariousness.
“It’s the churches, whether Catholic, Baptist or otherwise, that provide us with food about two or three times a week.” Like a harbinger of a better future, the roses in the garden are in resplendent bloom.