Exclusive: Footage shows Russian troops inside besieged Irpin, 13 miles from central Kyiv

Exclusive footage shows Russian troops just miles from Kyiv's centre

Russian armoured vehicles and troops are seen patrolling deserted streets 13 miles from the centre of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in video obtained by ITV News.

The footage was filmed on Wednesday morning in Irpin, the besieged town being reduced to smouldering ruins after several days of shelling.

Russian vehicles with a distinctive ‘V’ sign painted on their sides can be seen moving slowly through a residential area in the video, which provides fresh evidence that invading troops have reached the outskirts of the capital.

Some of the military vehicles have been camouflaged, others are parked up behind trees to conceal them.

At one point, as many as 16 soldiers can be seen gathered around three military vehicles. Seven armoured vehicles and a truck can seen in total.

At one point a soldier reclines casually in a bright blue deck chair as he ushers a passing dog. A group of soldiers then come together in preparation to move forward, further south.

Hundreds of residents of Irpin fled the town on Wednesday, climbing underneath a destroyed bridge and across a river to outpace the Russian shells and mortar fire hitting their city.

“It’s hot, it’s hot, it’s hot, it’s very hot,” one evacuee told ITV News after leaving the town earlier on Wednesday.

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He was among a group of dozens of residents that included a woman carried in her wheelchair and an elderly man lifted out on a stretcher.

“It’s bad,” said one evacuee as she crossed the river alone. “There’s no water, no electricity, nothing to cook with. Horrible. Our guys are saving us and friends are helping us."

She described travelling 500 miles from Mariupol to Irpin to help care for her grandchildren in the town. “They (my children) left with the babies but they didn’t manage to come back.”

Irpin is one of the towns on Russia’s path towards Kyiv, but after days of sustained fighting it has been unable to overcome the Ukrainian resistance. Military analysts believe this indicates the Russian assault has lost momentum.