Russian soldiers are shooting innocent civilians and raping locals in a campaign of terror in the Ukrainian city of Irpin, according to a report.
Anastasia Taran, a 30-year-old waitress who escaped Irpin, described how the invasion by the Russian forces has turned the city into “hell,” Euromaidan Press reported.
“There are plenty of Russian soldiers out there who just shoot people, who enter private homes and, at best, just kick people out of their homes,” said Taran, who now provides tips on Instagram on how to get out of the city.
“They rape women and the dead are just being dumped. They open the basements where people are hiding and shoot them.”
The young woman’s harrowing account follows that of 27-year-old Svetlana Zorina, a resident of Kherson who recently claimed that the occupying troops have sexually assuaulted women.
“They already started to rape our women. There was information from people that I personally know that a 17-year-old girl — it happened to her and then they killed her,” she told CNN.
Taran, who is from Enerhodar, had lived for the last four years in Irpin, where she and her husband got caught in the fighting and spent a week without communication, access to the internet, electricity, heat or water.
Taran, 30, described how the invasion by the Russian forces has turned Irpin into “hell.” Facebook
Ukrainians crowd under a destroyed bridge as they try to flee by crossing the Irpin River on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 8, 2022. AP Photo/Felipe Dana
A satellite image shows damaged and burning buildings in Irpin, near Kyiv, on March 21, 2022. EPA/MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES 
An elderly woman is assisted while crossing the Irpin River on an improvised path under a bridge, which was destroyed by Ukrainian troops. AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File
People cross the Irpin River on an improvised path under a bridge on March 5, 2022. AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
Service members of pro-Russian troops check cars, as local residents leave the besieged southern port city of Mariupol. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko“A guy from Luhansk lived in our house, he had already experienced it. He gathered all the remaining neighbors and said that it would only get worse,” she said.
“He argued that it was the right time to leave. We packed things at our own risk. Everyone took what they could. We only had our papers and cats,” added Taran.
Taran said she is now in Lviv with her husband and three cats.
Pro-Russia service members on the back of a truck in Mariupol on March 21. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
Cars backed up at the Irpin River bridge in Irpin as citizens attempt to flee Russian airstrikes on March 14, 2022. -/Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Tech/AFP via Getty Images
Bodies of people killed during Russian shelling in the town of Irpin on March 6, 2022. AP Photo/Diego Herrera Carcedo
A map detailing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I feel calmer, but I’m still anxious. I am afraid of silence because you are constantly expecting something bad from it. I still dread going outside: I always look for shelter,” she said.
