Yesterday, 6 March, Regional Disaster Response Teams of Ukraine's Red Cross and other volunteers evacuated about 200 people from the city of Irpin near Kyiv. One of the Red Cross volunteers and our photo correspondent Maksym Trebukhov told LB.ua how the evacuation took place and how people were evacuated despite the shelling.
Despite the evacuation announcement and the "green corridor", there was no corridor. We got under fire. When people saw red crosses, they ran to us, thinking that where there were red crosses, it was safe," says Maksym.
The battles for Irpin have been going on for several days. The Russian occupiers bombed the bridge on the way out of the city. Therefore, people made their way under the bridge on foot to get out of Irpin.
"We drove as close as possible to the destroyed bridge, and all the people who managed to get to us under the bridge jumped into cars. There were a lot of immobile elderly people - their relatives carried them in a pram, on a construction wheelbarrow, in their hands," says the volunteer.
In addition to the Red Cross, he and other volunteers also helped in the evacuation of the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital. While they were placing people in cars, a shell hit a church nearby.
They also managed to evacuate about ten dogs, which used to be someone's pets, in addition to 200 people.
"When we first arrived, we could not get close to the bridge. People were lying in a ditch near the road, hiding from mortar fire. Dogs saw us and started running towards us under fire and jumping into cars, - says Maxim. - It was apparent that the dogs were domestic. There were big and small dogs like chihuahuas. (in the picture is the Jack Russell Terrier - Ed.) We couldn't pick up people then, but we took the dogs out. "
One of the dogs, a Labrador, immediately after the evacuation became part of the SES of Ukraine.
"As soon as we reached the safe zone and opened the door, the young black Labrador immediately ran to the SES, and they accepted it. They stroked him; the dog was happy. Now he is serving in the State Emergency Service. The rest of the dogs fled after the evacuation," Trebukhov said.
As you know, the Russian troops purposefully fired from the 122 calibre mortars at the Irpin bridge in the Kyiv region, through which civilians tried to evacuate from the city.