The narrow wooden plank is half submerged in the icy waters of the Irpin River in Ukraine after 10,000 people used it in recent days to escape Russian bombardment as they advanced on Kiev.
The table must be used to evacuate everyone, from women, children and the elderly to dogs, baby carriages, suitcases, bicycles and wounded on stretchers. Bodies rolled up in rugs have even passed through it.
The concrete bridge left above was deliberately destroyed by Ukrainian forces.
“A friend brought us by car to the bridge and we crossed it, he hid his car and will continue on foot,” explains Tetyana, 51, after passing through the plank.
“On the highway there were shots everywhere, but we got through the middle,” he adds, pulling his suitcase.
“These shots scare me a lot, I tell myself that if I die suddenly, that’s it, but if I end up injured in the legs, I’ll have to climb to escape [de los combates] and that is not a good thing”, he explains with a calm face.
But Tetyana and the rest are far from certain.
They still have to go through a slope and a crossing, completely exposed.
The day before, two civilians died there. AFP journalists saw their bodies, lying in the middle of their suitcases.
Eight residents fleeing Irpin were killed on Sunday, including a family with their two children, according to authorities.
Speed is vital, you have to run and leave behind the heaviest gear.
empty carts
Thus, the road through which civilians are evacuated is dotted with baby strollers, bicycles, suitcases and even shopping carts. There are also some pets, wandering, abandoned by their owners.
Past the intersection, still smoldering from Russian bombardment, is Vasyl Povoroznyuk, 49, ready in his white van to take over.
This army chaplain offered to transport civilians between this first point of exfiltration and the area guarded by the Ukrainian forces, about 2 km from there.
The path is made through forest, between the pumps. At the end, there is a parking lot where ambulances, psychologists and first aid services are waiting.
“I don’t feel fear or panic,” explains the chaplain-driver, who is speeding along the highway at 100 km/h, looking for a new group.
“They need help, if we don’t do it, who is going to do it? This is a matter of life and death, the more we can save, the better,” she says.
“Children first!”, he shouts before the group of 30 evacuees who were waiting for him but who are queuing calmly, as if they were in a post office.
“Come on, little hero,” he says to a boy who came out of the house with a plastic sword in his hand, giving him a chocolate bar. He keeps a few in his parka to give to the children.
Before getting into the truck, little Ania, who will not be more than five years old, has to separate from her father, who has to look for the rest of the family. “Papushka (…), stay here!” She pleads with her, clinging to her mother.
In the background, menacing whistles can be heard.
“Bring on the coaches!”
The explosion causes chills. “A thud is us, a whistle followed by a thud is their artillery,” fired from further away, explains Vasyl.
Despite the shots, still sporadic, the evacuees arrive by the hundreds and some in very poor condition, like an old woman being brought by six soldiers on a rug.
“Bring in the school buses!” orders a policeman through a walkie-talkie, seeing the crowd approaching.
In a few minutes, the yellow buses arrive together with the mayor of Irpin, Oleksander Markushyn, who organizes as best he can this Informal “humanitarian corridor”, not currently coordinated with Russian forces.
“Nobody here has talked about a ‘green corridor’, I think because Irpin is in full battle and has no intention of giving up”, explains the young mayor, who is jumping from bus to bus with a kalashnikov and a protective helmet on his head, trying to reassure the population.
There are already 10,000 people who left the town in the last ten days.
“There are still about 10,000 to evacuate, probably in two or three days,” considers the mayor. “Many refuse to leave,” he adds. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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