Miraculously Survived: The Mayor of Irpin Told How the Occupiers Tried to Kill Him Three Times

Irpin Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn told Channel 24 that during the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian occupiers tried to kill him several times for refusing to cooperate with them.

“On the first day of the war, I received an offer to cooperate with the Russians. They promised that I would be unharmed, they promised money and cooperation. But I definitely refused and made it public. I am a principled person, and there can be no cooperation with the enemy. And after that, the task was to destroy me”, he said.

The mayor noted that his car was shot for the first time. “It’s good that I miraculously survived. My guys behind me were insuring me, and we were fighting”, Markushyn explained.

The second time, he said, they fired on the house where he usually spent the night, but this time he stayed with a friend and planned to drive home in the morning to change. “As we approached the house to change, I saw that it was burning down. Part of the neighborhood was completely intact, and it was completely destroyed. Only the walls remained. Then experts and the military said that a heat rocket hit it”, Markushyn said.

According to the mayor, there was a third attempt to kill him. “We were tracked by mobile phones, walkie-talkies, call signs. When we drove through one sector, it was covered with “Hail”. When such systems of volley fire are fired at behind, and we go, it is necessary to leave as soon as possible. And I say something to the driver: “Stop! We will now run to the trench”. He stops, and I say, “No, let’s move on”. When we set off, we saw that in front, about 100 meters away, six cracks of “Grads” flew. This is scary. The car was damaged, but we survived. One fragment flew into my back, but I was in a bulletproof vest. I survived”, Markushyn explained.

He said that the threats “we will destroy you” came to him on social networks and “about 10 days ago”. “We will not hold any talks with terrorists”, Markushyn said.

We will remind, on March 28 the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported that the Ukrainian military liberated Irpin from the Russian occupiers. Three days earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky had awarded Irpin the title of “Hero City of Ukraine”.

According to the UN satellite center Unosat, as of March 31, the Russian military had damaged at least 1,060 housing and social infrastructure facilities in Irpin during the occupation. It will take about $1 billion to restore Irpin’s housing stock and infrastructure.

It will be recalled that the mayor of Irpin recently turned 42 and our editorial office collected the brightest quotes from the mayor during the entire period of occupation.

Urgent, important and verified reports on the Russian-Ukrainian war and other events in the city and Irpin region can be found on our Facebook page and in the Telegram channel.