Borodianka, another Ukrainian city in ruins after the withdrawal of Russian troops: “We don't know how many civilians are killed in the basements”

After the withdrawal of Russian troops last week, Borodianka, a Ukrainian city on the outskirts of Kiev, shows signs of violence, with buildings destroyed, clothing in trees or burnt tanks.

A road trip through this modest Ukrainian city is now an absurdly sinister procession.

An apartment building was hollowed out by an explosion, a smutty mattress hangs outdoors. A burnt tank stands in the bowels of a destroyed building. There are toys lying on the street, too many to count. Nothing is where it should be and some houses are simply gone.

The Russian withdrawal last week left traces of the battle waged to control Borodianka, 50 kilometers northwest of Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.

On the muddy central road, Mykola Kazmyrenko pushes a supermarket cart with aid packages without understanding what happened.

“I can't even look at it, it makes me cry,” says the 57-year-old. “People were left homeless.”

AFP did not see any bodies on a brief visit to Borodianka, but residents say many of their neighbors died.

“I know of five civilians who died,” says Rafik Azimov, 58. “But we don't know how many more are left in the basements of buildings after the bombings.”

In the city of Bucha, between Borodianka and Kiev, AFP observed 20 bodies on a single street on Saturday. In the case of Borodianka, although the human cost is not clear, the devastation seems more important.

Most of the windows are broken and the signs of life that was bustling inside are now visible from the outside: a fridge with magnets, a brown oriental carpet hanging from a wall or intact kitchen knives.

In a nine-story apartment building, entire rooms disappeared. Only wallpaper remains: brown on the fourth floor, blue on the fifth, gold on the sixth.

Through a hole in the building you can see the sky. Now these houses are ruined bricks and twisted metal, at the mercy of the Ukrainian wind.

As you walk, you can hear the sound of broken glass and there are cats meowing among the ruins. The lawn of the gazebo located at the entrance of the city is burned by the traces of the tanks.

Mobile telephony doesn't work but two people climbed to the top of an apartment block looking for a signal.

Other residents venture into the houses to get their belongings out. But it's a risk, because the explosives disposal teams haven't done their job yet.

On the central square, the bust of the poet Taras Shevchenko, an icon of Ukrainian culture, remains standing. But above the eyebrow and in the head there are two bullet holes.

The verse inscribed below reads: “Love your Ukraine, love it. In the fierce times and in the last of the difficult moments.”

“Atrocities”

Valentyna Petrenko traveled from a nearby town to testify to what happened.

“When the Russians arrived they took our mobile phones and ransacked our homes. We try to behave normally with them so as not to provoke them,” said the 67-year-old woman.

“A missile fell in our village, my house was in ruins,” he said. “The Russians committed atrocities, many atrocities.”

Volodymyr Nahornyi leaves Borodianka with his bicycle but must abandon it on a destroyed bridge, making his way through the ruins, now impassable for vehicles.

When he crosses, he meets Petrenko and looks towards the place he came from, the destroyed city.

“All the apartments were stolen and vandalized,” he said. “Everything is in ruins, everything is damaged.” “I buried six people. Many more are under the ruins.”

(With information from AFP/by Joe Stenson)

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