Valery Semenov clearing the rubble of his home, after it was destroyed by Russian troops during their takeover of the town of Irpin, on May 3, 2022. Photo: Rudaw
IRPIN, Ukraine - Valery Semenov has taken matters into his own hands, clearing his house of rubble, and planning to repair the home, built in 1937, after it was destroyed by Russian troops during their takeover of the town of Irpin, situated in the Kyiv oblast.
"We are now renting a house and we want to build at least something temporary here so that we can live here," Semenov told Rudaw's Dlnia Rahman on Tuesday, adding that he wants to repair it as soon as possible as he finds it increasingly difficult to be able to afford to pay rent in Kyiv.
Volunteers, locals, and municipal workers have already started to clear the streets of Bucha and Irpin of the trails of destruction and other debris of war.
According to initial estimates, in Irpin and Bucha and 20 villages around them, 2,190 residential buildings have been damaged, half of which need to be repaired from their foundations.
Around 30 kilometers from Kyiv, Moschun was one of the villages in the path of Russian forces after they entered embattled Ukraine from Belarus. The village saw significant damage, with large parts reduced to rubble.
"Now we have nothing, we are cleaning every day because we want to live here again," Lyudmila, an elderly local Ukrainian woman from Moschun village told Rudaw on Tuesday.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly accused Russia of killing hundreds of civilians around Kyiv. Moscow has denied the allegations.
The United Nations estimates that at least 2,899 civilians have been killed and 3,235 injured across Ukraine since the war began in February.
As the war rages on in the eastern and southern parts of the country, more than five million Ukrainian have fled Ukraine, seeking shelter in neighboring and other western European countries, according to the latest UN estimates, putting the total number of internally displaced persons at nearly eight million.
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