NEWS/COMMENT- IRPIN, UKRAINE: For me, this is a distressing picture of an animal caught up in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There are many animals who have been killed and injured. Many have been taken by their owner/refugees to Poland and other adjacent countries. This is just another distressing photograph. It is also an inspiring photograph in some ways because this man is trying to reassure a dog who appears to have lost the will to go on. Perhaps he/she is too traumatized. Certainly, this dog has lost the will to move. We don’t know more. I wish I did but perhaps it would be to distressing.
Irpin is a city located on the Irpin River. It is next to the capital of Ukraine: Kyiv. It’s a key location for the Russians in their invasion as it lies in their path to the capital. There has been a battle raging there with massive destruction. The pictures are horrendous. Irpin is being tenaciously defended.
A photojournalist, Marcus Yam, perhaps freelancing for the Los Angeles Times has produced some fantastic photographs in colour of that city. I hope that he does not mind me reproducing this single photograph because it caught my eye.
The latest Wikipedia report is dated March 14 in which they say a local member of Ukraine Parliament confirmed that half of Irpin was occupied by Russian forces. On March 13 Russian forces at a checkpoint shot a car carrying a foreign journalists including an American, Brent Renaud. They injured two others. Renaud was carrying a press pass issued by The New York Times.
