Irina Kindzerska: "Our house came under a tank or APC fire"

"I know that our house was fired upon by a tank or an armoured personnel carrier," Irina Kindzerska, Azerbaijani judoka of Ukrainian origin, who won a bronze medal in over 78 kg weight category at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, told Report.

The 31-year-old judoka said that before the war they lived in the town of Irpen, near the Kyiv region. “You know that the military operations were mainly in Hostomel. Everything has been razed to the ground there. On the seventh day of the war, my husband and I left the city. At about 10 o'clock in the morning, I was told that a shell had fallen under a window near our house. Currently, the house does not have windows. The next day, I was told that tanks and armoured personnel carriers came to the area and opened fire. Regrettably, I can't provide you with a picture since no one takes pictures at such moments. But I know that our house was fired upon by a tank or APC (armoured personnel carrier). In general, people have nothing left in Irpen. The city is on fire. There is no gas, water, or electricity. It's impossible to live there now."

The judoka said her house in Irpen was in a residential compound: “There are many such complexes, housing and communal services. All of them were fired upon, and tanks entered the yards.”

She did not want to reveal the current whereabouts of her family: “We are forbidden to talk about it so that the Russians cannot find and hit us. I can only say that we are in the west of Ukraine."