Ukraine says Kyiv suburb of Irpin ‘liberated’

Written by Candy Megia on

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This handout satellite image released by Maxar Technologies shows damaged and burning buildings in Irpin, Ukraine on March 21, 2022. – Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky on March 21 said his country would be “destroyed” before it surrenders its cities to invading Russian forces, as he doubled down on a call for direct talks with Vladimir Putin as the key to ending the war. (Photo by Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies / AFP)

KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) – Ukrainian forces have “liberated” the Kyiv suburb of Irpin, Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said late Monday in televised remarks.

“In fact, this is now happening in parallel: the armed forces are advancing, the police are advancing, and immediately a sweep is going on completely through the streets… Therefore, the city has now been liberated, but it is still dangerous to be there, ” Monastyrsky said.

The town’s mayor, Oleksandr Markushin, had earlier on Monday announced on his Telegram channel that Russian troops had been driven out of the town on the strategic northwestern entrance to Kyiv.

The main checkpoint on the road to Irpin from the outskirts of Kyiv was open again on Monday following the announcement by the town’s mayor that it had been recaptured, two weeks after it was closed to the media following the death of a US journalist.

Ukrainian servicemen carry rocket-propelled grenades and sniper rifles as they walk towards the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, on March 13, 2022. – Russian forces advance ever closer to the capital from the north, west and northeast. Russian strikes also destroy an airport in the town of Vasylkiv, south of Kyiv. A US journalist was shot dead and another wounded in Irpin, a frontline northwest suburb of Kyiv, medics and witnesses told AFP. (Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP)

But fighting was still going on, with some 20 loud shell explosions in quick succession in the pine forest through which the six kilometre (four mile) road runs, AFP journalists at the scene said.

Russian forces have subjected the town to heavy bombardments as their attempt to encircle the capital Kyiv has stalled.

© Agence France-Presse