Irpin

Irpin is a city around 20 kilometers from Kyiv in the Bucha district. The city was home to 65 000 citizens until February 2022. Located between the rivers Irpin and Bucha, the town was a quiet neighbourhood in the backyard of the capital.

Previously the area was made from smaller 17th century villages. Irpin was formally founded in 1899 as a junction of the Kyiv–Kovel railway. The city had seen its fair share of violence in the Second World War, when the Nazis and Soviets fought in the battle of Kyiv.

After the events of the Russian attack in 2022, Irpin was awarded with the title Hero City of Ukraine. It all came with a price.

Irpin was affected by the massacre of civilians in neighbouring Bucha and multiple civilians were also pointlessly slaughtered in Irpin.

As the battle raged, civilians fled the once quiet neighbourhood and were met by Russian artillery fire that killed at least eight of the hundreds of innocent people.

Irpin was the last front before the capital and the battles were massive in the city. As a last effort the Ukrainian forces destroyed the bridge over the Irpin river, the only way out of the city into the capital.