Irpin’s car cemetery

January 18, 2024

On January 18, 2024, driving along Hwy M506 between Kyiv and Irpin, we traced the path of the Battle of Irpin, in which the Ukrainian Armed Forces stopped the advance of russian forces from entering their ultimate destination, Kyiv. Hundreds of soldiers, volunteers and civilians died along this road while defending their town.  Halting the invading force by blowing up bridges leading to Kyiv, Irpin itself took the brunt of occupation for 32 days in March 2022. 

Families fleeing with children in cars painted with “children,” vaporized by tank rounds. Civilians stepping out of their homes shot in the street, execution style; sometimes a bullet in the forehead, sometimes in the back of the head, take your pick in this russian roulette. One house blown apart and burnt, the next one standing unharmed. Every person in a 5 mile radius cowering on the ground, between the thickest walls they could find, listening to the screams of their neighbors who did not escape the bullets or shrapnel cutting through their homes.

Two years later, the road and bridges are rebuilt and the town bustles with reconstruction. Children play in new, brightly painted playgrounds, parents push strollers through the park.   At first glance, this could be a suburb anywhere in the US.  But the scars of war remain.  Charred and hollowed out buildings punctuate the road next to newly built apartments, shrapnel and bullet ridden fences line the path to a new supermarket, a sparse park of tall tree stumps speaks of indiscriminate volleys of missiles and artillery. 

We stop at a “car cemetery,” a pile of destroyed civilian cars in which entire families were annihilated as they fled their hometown. Some of the wrecks have candles in memory of those who died, some have flowers and ribbons. Some have teddy bears for the children passengers.  An artist painted sunflowers over the rusty facades, his stenciled QR code a reminder that this is happening in 2024.