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The water pumps in Demydow are still running today.
The reason: On the second day of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the residents decided to flood the small village north of Kiev to make it difficult for Russian troops to get to Kyiv.
Ukrainian forces opened the dam to the Irpin River.
Oleksandr Rybalko, villager:
»The water flowed here.
The water level in the reservoir rose and the village was flooded.
A third of the village was under water, maybe even 40 percent.«
The plan worked: the Russian tanks had to take a detour.
This is one of the reasons why the advance towards Kyiv came to a halt.
However, the residents of Demydow had to pay a high price: the village was occupied by Russian troops and six people lost their lives.
Nobody was able to escape because the only bridge in the village was destroyed.
The dam is damaged, many areas are still under water.
Nevertheless, many villagers do not regret the action.
Volodymyr Artemchuk, villager:
»Of course it's good that we were flooded.
You can imagine what it would be like if they crossed the river here and advanced towards Kyiv.
Kyiv would have defended itself, then all shells would have landed here, the other side would have fired in the opposite direction and we would have been the front line.
What about that?"
The clean-up work in Demydow is likely to take weeks, if not months.
After all, the first flowers are already being planted again.