This exclusive drone footage filmed on Wednesday (March 30) shows the full extent of the devastation left in the western Kyiv suburb of Irpin after Ukrainian forces pushed Russian troops out.

Panning out from the golden dome of an Orthodox church, smoke rises among the wide swaths of a destroyed, bombarded city.

Reports indicate that the hotly disputed western region near the capital city was in Russian hands amid the month-plus invasion but now has returned to Ukrainian control.

The victory is both strategically and symbolically important as it marks the closest the Russian army had gotten to Kyiv, which is only 3 miles away from Irpin.

Recent ceasefire negotiations indicate the Kremlin promised to reduce “by multiples” the intensity of its military activity around Kyiv, an area that includes Irpin, in effect acknowledging that the short march to the capital that was expected has been met with fierce and unyielding resistance.

“They will not abandon plans to take the capital,” Oleksandr Danylyuk, a former secretary of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council, said to media.

“Today we have good news,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address seen on Monday. “Our defenders are advancing in the Kyiv region, regaining control over Ukrainian territory," before adding that Irpin was now "liberated."

Shocking drone footage from Iprin shows the Ukrainian city decimated from Russian shelling