IRPIN, Ukraine – A Russian force advancing towards Kiev fired mortar shells on Sunday into a battered bridge used by evacuees fleeing the fighting, causing panicked civilians to flee and four people dead on the sidewalk stayed behind.
Hundreds of people have gathered around the damaged bridge over the Irpin River since Saturday. Ukrainian troops had previously blown up the bridge to slow the Russian advance. Only a dozen Ukrainian soldiers were in the immediate vicinity of the bridge on Sunday, who did not fight but helped carry civilians’ luggage and children.
To cross about a hundred meters of undeveloped street on the side of the bridge closer to Kiev, people who wanted to flee to the capital formed small groups and ran towards it together. Soldiers rushed out, picked up children or luggage, and took cover behind a cinder block wall.
The mortar shells first fell about 100 yards from the bridge, then shot in a series of thunderous explosions at a section of the street where people were fleeing. A DailyExpertNews team — including photojournalist Lynsey Addario; a safety adviser; and Andriy Dubchak, the freelance journalist who filmed the scene, witnessed the shooting of civilians.
As the mortars got closer to the stream of civilians, people ran away, children pulled along and tried to find a safe place. But there was nothing to hide behind. A shell landed on the street, whipping up a cloud of concrete dust, leaving one family behind: a woman, her teenage son and her daughter, who appeared to be about 8 years old; and a friend of the family – sprawled on the floor.
Soldiers rushed to help, but the woman and children were dead. A man traveling with them still had a heartbeat, but was unconscious and seriously injured. He died later.
Their luggage, a blue trolley and some backpacks, were scattered, along with a green carrier bag for a small barking dog.
Ukrainian troops were involved in fighting nearby, but not where civilians moved along the street. Mortar shells could be heard from a Ukrainian position about 200 meters away.
The shelling suggested either targeting evacuation routes from Irpin, something Ukrainian authorities have accused the Russian military after hitting a railway line used for evacuations on Saturday, or ignoring the risk of civilian casualties.
Russian forces have been pushing through three small towns on the northwestern outskirts of Kiev, Hostomel, Bucha and Irpin, for days, and the fighting has driven evacuees from the area to the capital.
Early Sunday morning, the city’s military commander, Oleksiy Kuleba, said in a televised statement that the routes out were so unsafe that they were effectively blocked. “Unfortunately, unless there is a ceasefire,” people couldn’t get out, he said.
But civilians still tried to escape, first to Kiev and then hopefully to a safer place in the west of the country.
Soldiers at the site also assisted an injured member of the Territorial Defense Forces, the organization that coordinates armed volunteers in the defense of the city. He had been shot in the arm.