Charred houses, cratered lawns and an epic clean-up on road to Chernihiv

Muzyra and her son, Denis, live in Zalissya, a village on the highway between the capital Kyiv and the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv. For 20 days, between 8 and 28 March, Russian troops took over her home, sleeping on top of her kitchen stove. The property survived better than many others. The house next door is a charred, roofless shell. A burned-out Lada sat in its courtyard, next to a ravaged vine trellis.

In his latest video address, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, pledged to modernise urban areas destroyed by Russia. The priority was to find temporary housing for citizens forced to flee their homes, he said. They would be given money or materials to rebuild, with the plan subsequently expanded to all affected cities and communities. Veterans and state workers would be a housing priority, he said.

Over in the village church the priest Georgy Petrosuk was preparing for his first post-occupation prayer service. He said a team of volunteers had cleared up. He was hoping to complete the dusting in time for Easter, he added, as he frantically wiped down icons and pictures of the holy family with a wet cloth. Someone had peppered the building with machine gun rounds. His parishioners had fitted a new door, he said.

Further down the road, the neighbouring settlement of Yahidne was in a pitiful state. Russian units had taken over most properties, marking them with a V. They had herded several hundred people at gunpoint into the basement of the village school. There was little oxygen. Eleven people, including a 13-year-old girl, died there, amid choking darkness. Medical investigators on Sunday had parked outside.