For the first time since the beginning of the war, Halyna was able to return home. In Hannivka, in eastern Ukraine, a few kilometers from the front, she was born and lived for more than 70 years;
Like almost all the inhabitants of this small town, the bombings forced him to leave on March 20. But the withdrawal of the Russian soldiers allows him today to come and see the damage.
“Look how it is destroyed, the railings are damaged, the grass is very high and you see the windows, we had fixed it and it has broken again,” he laments.
“If they repel the Russians (…) the inhabitants will return”
His 84-year-old neighbor, Petro, also returned to his village, but was nearly killed. “There’s a rocket… I got hot, there were big fragments flying everywhere as I was standing in my yard,” he told BFMTV.
Very quickly, the two neighbors discussed the counteroffensive launched by Kyiv at the end of August. “I watch the news every day. I know that the villages of Vysokopillia and Ivannika have been taken over… Is it true or not? We don’t know!” Halina said. Neither she, nor Petro, nor anyone else has precise information about the ongoing military operations…
But according to the two Ukrainians, the Russians withdrew: a few weeks ago, the shells fell closer to the village.
Although the situation seems to have calmed down, Petro believes that it is still too early for all the inhabitants to return to live in Hannivka. “From here to Kherson there are 170 km … if they repel the Russians there … it will be easier for people. And they will come back,” he wants to believe her.
Source: BFM TV
