Heart-wrenching Photos Show Sea Of Ukrainians Under Destroyed Bridge As They Try To Flee

In the Ukrainian town of Irpin, a sea of people on foot and in wheelbarrows trudge under a destroyed bridge to cross a river and evacuate.

Heart-wrenching pictures of the evacuation, which is being assisted by Ukrainian forces, has been making the rounds on the internet. A crowd of hundreds of people can be seen standing under the ruined bridge, waiting for forces to make way for their escape.

The town, 20 kilometres north-west of Kyiv, has found itself on the frontline between Russian and Ukrainian forces over the past few days. The bridge was earlier destroyed by Ukrainian forces to slow the Russian advance.

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City of Irpin ruined by Russian air strikes

Artillery and air strikes have caused heavy damage in and around the town including residential buildings, roads and bridges. Trains are the main escape route for residents still remaining in the town constantly pounded by Russian missiles and strikes.

However, the route is a difficult one, with many having to travel by foot along shelled roads and damaged bridges. Air strikes have caused severe damage in the area, with at least one attack leaving a residential tower block almost completely destroyed.

Earlier this week, the shelling of a residential block in Irpin was captured in video footage.

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Current situation in Ukraine

Meanwhile, a regional official on Saturday said Russia was dropping powerful bombs designed to destroy fortified structures on residential areas.

Vyacheslav Chaus, head of the Chernihiv region, posted a photo on Telegram of what he said was an undetonated FAB-500, a Soviet-designed 500 kilogram air-dropped bomb. "Usually this weapon is used against military-industrial facilities and fortified structures," he said.

The city of Chernihiv, located north of Kyiv and with a population of 290,000, has come under heavy fire from Russian forces. Officials said 17 people in the region were killed in the most recent shelling.

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Russian forces have seized two Ukrainian nuclear power plants and are advancing toward a third, Ukraine's president said during a call with US senators on Saturday.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the third facility under threat is the Yuzhnoukrainsk nuclear power plant, located 120 kilometres north of Mykolaiv, one of several cities the Russians were trying to keep encircled.