Fight after the battle

History of the house on the Gostelskoye Shosse, 24/1, the eyes of the tenant of an accidentally surviving apartment

This is a very famous house. During visits to Ukraine, the prime ministers of European powers and other eminent guests will certainly come to him to be photographed. Here, a few weeks after the end of the battles, the Stefania clip of Kalush Orchestra, which won Eurovision-2022, was shot. Pictures of what remained of him, like pictures of the Stalingrad house of Pavlov, circled the whole world.

Like Pavlov’s house, the building on the Gostelskoye Shosse several times passed from hand to hand. There were fierce battles. It was here that the Russian army was stopped at Kyiv. Not "somewhere here", namely in this house and its closest environs. The contact line passed right along the street. Of the 216 apartments, about half burned, the rest are badly damaged. The house was very destroyed, but still resisted. Experts say that, in spite of everything, it can be restored. If this happens, it will become a symbol of not only resistance, but also revival.

... It so happened that the battles in Irpen in March last year I saw on the air, online. He wrote an old acquaintance in Kyiv to find out what was happening with them. “Look,” she said. Something rumbled on the screen, burned, a high-rise building collapsed at a distance of several meters.

All this seemed so incredible that I did not believe. Then no one believed anyone, there were many fakes, full chaos reigned in the information space. They wrote that a Russian landing landed at GOSTEL Airport. There are fights for Buch and Irpen a few kilometers from the landing.

I asked:

- What is your address?

- GOSTOLSKY HOVES, 24/1, on the road from Irpen.

This meant that Vika was going to kill right now. While I am sitting in my Moscow apartment.

- Wait, how did you end up there?

- I live here.

... Vika Zhuravleva bought a new apartment a few months before the war. It was expensive. To buy odnushka in Irpen, she sold a kopeck piece in Kyiv. The place is called "Irpen Lipki." Forest, lake, landscape design, new monolithic house with "smart" apartments equipped in the first class. This is then. And now, of course, ruins.

Repair was made, furniture bought. On the seventh of February, Vika bought a sofa, and the war began on the 24th.

In a straight line from Irpen to Kyiv, seven to eight kilometers.

“He is quite large,” says Vika, “on a foot for two hours from end to end.” Initially, it was a suburb with a private sector and a couple of small enterprises. Writing cottages, sanatoriums and houses of creativity. Resort zone. When Chernobyl happened, they began to build nine -story buildings for the Chernobyls. In 2014, when the war began, many immigrants from the east moved here. And only seven years ago they began to rebuild him as something modern, comfort class. The city is divided into two parts of the railway, I chose one where the development density is less.

But I did not have time to live there. The city fell under the distribution immediately after the start of hostilities.

- I woke up from a girlfriend’s call from Kyiv, she said that today there was no need to go to work because the war has begun. And then helicopters appeared. And on the second time, the first time flew in, right next to me, I sent you a photo.

- Why didn't you leave after the first shot?

- I did not want to succumb to panic, it seemed that it was safer to stay in place than to twitch. And then it was so easy to not leave. The bridges were blown up. The air raids began, this is the worst. They rushed to Kyiv through us. We tried to go on one side, on the other. The first battle was from Buchi. Immediately everything is nearby, the cities are not very strongly divided, one smoothly flows into the other. Bucha is clearly visible from our house, it is right behind the lake.

Vika did not know about the horror that took place at that time in Buch. And no one in the house knew until the Russians left. But they were in Irpen, in the second half of March 2022, Irpen was occupied two-thirds. Historical certificate: Once Irpen has already been occupied. In 1941, the Germans.

- We went into my house and in the private sector. We did not have the same as in Buch, where the equipment was taken to trophies. When we returned, the doors were hacked, the neighbor had an armored door - it was stupidly blown up. Apparently, they spent the night: the sleeping bags are laid out. I have disappeared all the tourist equipment, a backpack, a stepladder. The doors were taken to equip the fire point. Not so much robbed as everything that was at hand was used.

Why so desperately fought for the house 24/1, it is clear if you look at the photo. This is a strategically important point, hence the convenient review of 270 degrees to Kyiv itself. The house was built stepped, in each entrance a maximum of 11 floors, at least six. The fire point from the ledge can control all the surroundings. That is why the building stood for so long when everything around was already destroyed. And when they realized that it would not be possible to stay there, they began a massive missile shelling.

-On the 16th, there was a direct hit on the roof, a fire began, the attic caught fire. The Ministry of Emergencies could not drive because of the shelling, the several remaining tenants tried to extinguish the fire themselves, but nothing came of it, the upper floors completely burned out. And after the 16th, they began to crap from all types of weapons to slaughter.

- Are there still people?

- Fortunately, no. I left the 11th. The week before was the most difficult. Gas disappeared, the distribution booth was smashed, light and water disappeared. There was practically no connection. After that, I began to get out. But leaving was already problematic: the chances are 50 to 50, because the cars were shot. I have a neighbor with the car, he already had gasoline at the end of it, and he still drove neighboring grandmothers and children to a novel. The Romanovsky bridge was blown up, crossed the bottom. For three days we sat at a low start, waited for the corridor to be given. After me, four people remained in the house, they apparently extinguished the fire. In the morning of the 17th, they went on foot, reached where they were able to, there volunteers picked them up and took them out.

And after that, the house began to be destroyed. Now it’s hard to imagine that once people lived in it.

- There are, of course, more or less preserved apartments, but absolutely not. The only whole window is mine, I got off easier than anyone. Everything is sown with fragments, fragments in the wall, in the kitchen, stretched stretch ceilings, but there are no direct hits.

As soon as the opportunity appeared, Vika returned to Irpen. For a year, she rents an apartment three minutes from her destroyed house, on a neighboring street. But this is not the end of the story. Now her main goal is to return home. Looking at the photos of the ruins, I do not really believe that it is possible that 24/1 will live again in the house, but, looking at Vika, I believe.

- We work every week, sometimes every day. At a preliminary examination, we were encouraged, because everything looked as if the house would not survive. Experts said: “Guys, don’t panic, you have good walls, a frame and carrying in normal condition. The house may well be restored. ” For our money, we ordered a detailed examination, for its implementation we had to clear the rubble. They cleared all summer. There were dense layers of glass, bricks, concrete - above my height. In one day, from 500 to a thousand bags it took us. The cellars were very littered. They raked, took out and began to “get” local authorities.

- And according to the law, are you obliged to restore you?

- Yes, but it needs very large funds. In addition, the mechanisms are now being developed now, everything turns out along the way. You see, we have really large -scale destruction.

- That is, it is easier to demolish?

- No. Panel nine -story buildings built in the nineties are demolished. It is impossible to restore them, everything burned into concrete. And our house is monolithic, everything is simply shifted there enough.

People stubbornly want to restore the house. For a year already. And do the impossible for this. They even try to recreate a landscape design. He was badly damaged, half of the pines and plants burned down. But what remains, they preserved and revived.

- Vika, this is caused by practical necessity, do you have nowhere to live?

“You know, we would find where to live.” No, this is stubbornness, it is fundamental. We must return to a peaceful life, and not admire the ruins. If the house is restored, then we are strong, then, contrary to everything, we will survive.