After three months on the run, moving from one place to another, they returned home. But they’ve lost everything, and are now living in a train car as they try to put their lives back together. Russia ‘storing weapons at nuclear plant’ – live war updates They showed me around their cramped cabin. Up to 25 families are living on the train after it was converted into temporary accommodation to help the large number of people whose homes have been destroyed here. A carriage is now a shower block, the restaurant carriage is where they get three meals a day. It’s basic but a creative use of space in a city where so many residents are now homeless. “In general, the conditions are good,” says the mother, Mila Kagarlytski. “But how long we can be here – we don’t know. Because right now we have nowhere to go.” Image: Son Vlad’s cat survived The Kiev suburb of Irpin is about as close as the Russians got to the capital in this war. As bombs fell on their neighborhood – they witnessed unimaginable horror. “We were picking up debris and pulling out the injured,” said the father, Yevhen Kagarlytski. “Literally two minutes later, we saw an airstrike with our own eyes. Two or three minutes later we ran over there and started pulling people out.” The family initially retreated to a basement, but as Russian troops began to take over the city, they made the decision to escape – only slightly missing out on the brutality that followed. “We left on March 4 – that was the last day we could leave by car. The next day, all communications were cut off,” Mila said. “There were already Russian tanks in Irpin. But we took the risk and went in our own car.” The mass withdrawal of Russian troops from this region in April left behind a devastated city and a traumatized community. The residents who remained had horrific stories of abuse, aggression and executions. The bodies of nearly 300 civilians were found here – a disproportionate number of them women. Read more: Russian ambassador warns of ‘prolonged’ warVideo shows ‘last minutes’ of young girl killed in Russian strike Image: Up to 25 families live on the train Slowly some residents have returned, but the threat remains here. The windows of the train carriage where they sleep are now taped up to protect them from the effects of further shelling. I asked the family what brought them back if there was nothing to come home to? The answer was simple – their son Vlad missed school and missed his friends. His school has been bombed and is the most damaged school in the area. But Vlad tells me about one of his friends who stayed in Irpin the whole time, living in a basement during the Russian occupation. It was so painful to hear from a 12 year old. But where else could he talk about his experience if not back home in Irpin with his friends who have also endured it? He proudly showed me the coloring set he had been given and said he loved living on the train. What a contrast to most children’s summer holidays. Then, in a serious tone, Vlad spoke about his cat that they had left behind. He had saved his pocket money to buy Alice. Somehow it had survived their absence and the Russian occupation. Now they make a daily visit to their bombed apartment building to feed her every day. ‘The new reality has begun’ – listen to Ukraine’s War Diaries Image: The family’s apartment building has suffered extensive damage He invited us to join them. We followed their family car through streets riddled with bullet holes and destroyed buildings – a chilling reminder that just this spring this leafy suburb was terrorized by street-to-street fighting. The family has cleared all the debris from the staircase of their apartment building to get to Alice, who remains locked in her old house on one of the top floors. Seeing Vlad break into a big smile brought a sense of relief. You feel that the family’s daily visits to feed their cat are the same for her. Almost everyone you meet here is hurt by this war. Everyone deals with it in their own way.
