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The war waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine has caused huge losses in the towns northwest of Kyiv, killing thousands of civilians and entirely or partially destroying a huge number of homes, town halls, police precincts, educational buildings, medical units, commercial spaces and road infrastructure.
The Russian troops unleashed land or air strikes on everything in their way, not just the military targets the aggressors claimed to be their aim. Bombs dropped from jets flown in from Belarus, the missiles fired from outside Ukraine, or the tank convoys rolling through towns destroyed apartment blocks and homes, schools and kindergartens, hospitals and dispensaries, gas stations, shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, electricity, gas or water networks, roads and bridges.
The Russian invaders fired on thousands of civilian vehicles, killing people who were attempting to flee the war. Some cars can still be seen on the roadside on Kyiv's outskirts carrying the distinctive "Children on board" sign. In many instances the tanks simply drove over the cars, crushing the passengers inside, or fired at civilian vehicles causing them to explode, Agerpres.ro informs.
"Look, there's only one school left standing in our town! They destroyed all the administrative buildings, they took down the schools. (...) They destroyed all our electrical installations, they mangled our water supply. The gas pressure regulating stations are under fire," Borodyanka mayor Georgi Yerko told AGERPRES.
The center of Borodyanka is almost completely a ruin after more than a month of Russian military occupation. The town's police precinct was also attacked and destroyed. In front of the building is a damaged Ukrainian police car. A bridge on the E373 European road connecting Borodyanka to Kyiv was bombed, making the highway impassible.
The devastation left by the Russian occupation in Bucha is most horrific. The local Rail Station Street has made headlines for the dozens of Russian military vehicles destroyed by the Ukrainian army in a Bayraktar drone raid. Armored vehicles, fuel tanks or ammunition trucks were blown up, also destroying the houses in the area. The desolate landscape hasn't changed since.
A nearby residential neighborhood with recently built state-of-the-art blocks and villas came under the barrage of Russian tanks. Several shopping malls in the town were destroyed by setting them on fire.
In the village of Andriivka, a few kilometers from Borodyanka, no house was left intact. The Russian army had the locality under control for more than a month, during which time the soldiers looted and destroyed the homes. The local school now stands with hollow windows, the library and school furniture overturned. "They looted each and every house. I've never seen anything like that. They even took the washing machines, the spoons, the forks and the towels. They took everything, loaded them in tanks or cars," relates Lyuba Homenko, an Andriivka local.
Mykolaivka is a village sitting in the middle of a forest, about 40 kilometers from Kyiv. The Russian troops who occupied it systematically looted and destroyed it. Dozens of houses can no longer be used, and the locals have all fled. The traces left behind by the attackers can be seen at the edge of the village - underground shelters, ammunition boxes, military uniforms or food scraps. A few hundred meters away there's a Russian tank destroyed by an explosion caused by an Ukrainian attack.
War fallout is painfully visible in Irpin, Vorzel, Nemishaieve, Mikulicz, Makariv, Dmitryka, as well as in the localities lining the Kyiv - Zhytomir highway. Dozens of houses, commercial spaces, gas stations, factories or warehouses along a 50-kilometer highway stretch were left in ruins by the Russian attacks, as tanks and wrecked cars on the roadside add to the haunting atmosphere.
