A few residents of Kyiv have already gone home, but senior Ukrainian ministers have warned that the capital region isn't ready to have civilians return just yet.
Ukraine's best and most seasoned troops have heavily fortified themselves in key positions around cities such as Donetsk.
Despite that possibility, some residents on the banks of the Irpin River whose homes survived the Russian onslaught have decided to try to piece their lives back together, in spite of the advice to stay away. Novyk's modest brick house on Novo-Irpinskya Street lost the glass in a few windows but was miraculously spared significant structural damage, unlike the homes of most of his neighbours.
Still, Novyk says his wife as already cleaned up the flower garden, where new tulips are about to bloom.'Most of the time we were in our basement' At the peak of the battle, there were heart-wrenching scenes of residents trying to evacuate Irpin by crawling over the debris of the bridge.