STOYANKA: Russian snipers are still targeting the deserted crossroads into the village of Stoyanka, but Andrii Ostapets hopes to bring food to his neighbours - and to his cats, if they are still alive. The 69-year-old private museum owner has returned one week after fleeing the village on Kyiv's western edge, having heard that Ukrainian troops were driving back Moscow's forces.
"We saw people killed, we saw burnt down houses, we lived through hell" when Russia occupied the village, says Ostapets, protected from the biting cold by a thick leather jacket.
"Yesterday they pushed them back from our farm. The Russians have no chance to stay alive -- they can either surrender or die."
A bitter wind whips through Stoyanka, which has been turned into a ghost village after nearly a month on the western frontline of Russia's attempt to encircle the Ukrainian capital.
The sound of shelling still booms from the low forested hills that surround the village - where Ukrainian defence volunteer forces say Russian snipers are lurking. Gunfire crackles at a distance.
The fighting continues despite Moscow signalling on Friday that it had scaled down the aims of its month-old war on Ukraine, focusing now on the eastern Donbas area.
Ukraine says it is pushing back the stalled Russian advance on Kyiv in areas such as Stoyanka, just half a kilometre from the western city limits. "I have a full car of groceries, the people and pets who stayed there, we'll bring them food'', says Ostapets. "We are waiting for permission and we will go save those alive."
Most of the houses on the approach to Stoyanka appear to be empty, and some have been destroyed by shelling. At a sandbagged checkpoint where people are waiting to deliver aid, one militia member said it was "suicidal" to try to cross into the main part of the village at the moment.
"Two civilians were shot by snipers today'', says a civil defence volunteer toting a Kalashnikov rifle, his face covered by an olive green balaclava. The village was still being targeted by sniper fire, mortars and shelling, much of it coming from the surrounding woods, said the volunteer, asking not to be named.
Of the residents who have braved the fighting to stay, many are running short of food.
A surprise arrival at the scene is Ostapets' daughter, Snizhana Shokina, who says she has come to join the aid effort because the war "hurts the soul". "I didn't tell my parents I would come, because they would start worrying. I just decided to come'', says the 45-year-old mother-of-two, wearing a designer biker jacket. "They want to bring them food and I want to help and support them." - AFP
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