KUTUZIVKA. The afternoon sun melts the village’s slippery alleys into mudflats. On the patio tiles, glass shards crunch under winter boots.
18 years old Arina Sanina is coming back to his home for the first time during the war.
A disposal opens inside the door. The roofs have collapsed, the plastics melted and the metals rusted.
– It’s really scary to watch all this. My heart is bleeding, this affects so much, says Sanina.
Only the red brick walls remain of the eight-apartment townhouse in Sanina. Everything else is in ashes and fragments after Russia’s rocket attack last spring.
Sanina had moved into her first apartment in the village of Kutuzivka near Kharkiv just a couple of months before the Russian invasion.
– Here was the sofa, here was the TV and here were the wardrobes, Sanina introduces.
All that remains are warm memories. Sanina shows a photo from her cell phone where she is sitting on her terrace in the evening before the start of the war.
– This was a good place. People were like one family and everyone knew each other. Everyone was friendly and helpful. On vacation, we grilled saslik, Sanina says.
Now the residents are scattered everywhere.
When the war started, Sanina was fortunately visiting her mother in Kharkiv and quickly escaped the war to Germany. Everything is fine there – materially.
– In another country, I feel like I’m not needed. All are unknown. They look at me and know that I’m either coming from an occupied zone or I’m running away from bombings. They look, but they don’t understand, says Sanina.
However, you can’t go home yet.
– This house is impossible to repair. It has to be demolished and completely rebuilt, says Sanina. With what money, he has no idea.
Sanina is studying tourism remotely from Germany at the University of Kharkiv.
Nowadays, Russia launches missile attacks on the Kharkiv area at least once a week. It’s easy because the Russian border is close.
A missile hits its target in less than a minute, and air warnings often come late.
Relatives in Russia comfort: “Don’t worry, Russia will be there soon”
The attacks are particularly painful for the residents of Kutuzivka, because almost everyone here has – or at least had – close ties to Russia.
– I have many relatives in Russia. They called and said don’t worry, Russia will be there soon, everything will change for the better and a new house will be built for you so you can live quietly and peacefully, Sanina says.
– Is this the silence and peace, he asks and looks at the destruction around him.
Russia occupied the village of Kutuzivka for two months last spring. Even after the occupation, the front was so close that Russian artillery fired at the village almost daily.
‘s film crew visited Kutuzivka for the first time on May 21. Then the Ukrainian artillery fired at the Russian positions right next to the village, and Russia responded to the attacks.
Four days after ‘s visit, Arina Sanina’s terraced house was destroyed.
Homeless people still live in bomb shelters
Because of the continuous attacks, most of the remaining residents stayed in a bomb shelter day and night in the spring. There were more than a hundred of them then. This winter, the basement is still home to about 20 people, because they no longer have any other home.
The public shelter is dark and low, and when walking you have to dodge the pipes crossing under the roof. A wood-burning stove keeps the cold away.
The walls are decorated with icons, children’s drawings and the flag of Ukraine. Piles of the residents’ belongings have piled up on the vacant beds.
A pensioner is sitting in the same bed as last spring Marfa Ivanivnawhose apartment on the fourth floor was destroyed in the Russian attacks.
– The conditions are good, considering that we are living in wartime. It’s warm and clean here, and we have food. We get electricity from batteries, says Ivanivna.
Mice are buzzing in the basement, but they don’t bother him.
After we talk for a while, Ivanivna’s voice cracks. After all, the war year has been extremely difficult for him.
– How should I say it… illness, weakness, nervousness and stress. It’s been hard to bear all this. May God give me patience, strength and health, says Ivanivna, sobbing.
According to Ivanivna, the rockets are still flying continuously, but the terrifying rumble does not reach the basement.
Today Ivanivna ventured out despite everything, because a van from the Depaul aid organization has arrived in the village. Ivanivna and the other villagers get new electric heaters, blankets and pillows.
They come in handy, because it’s so cold in some apartments that winter clothes are worn inside.
Came with his family Hanna Kozachenko acknowledge the help he received on the form. Then he packs the new bedding into the trunk of the car.
The family goes to show us their apartment. You can still live in it, even though part of the building is destroyed and its roof is leaking.
“The bastards will burn in hell,” says the woman who tells about the atrocities
Kozachenko points to a room where traces of the war have been repaired.
– This is how the shard penetrated the room. It was very scary. We fell to the floor and quickly crawled to the basement, Kozachenko says.
Some of Kozachenko’s acquaintances died. He trembles when he talks about the atrocities of the war.
– Those bastards will still be held accountable. Burn in hell, Kozachenko snorts.
It is more pleasant to remember the birthday party. Kozachenko has just turned 60, and there is still cake left on the table. He offers vodka and cherry juice to the guests – and raises a glass to Ukraine’s victory.
When the Russians occupied Kutuzivka, Kozachenko’s three-generation family fled by car to relatives on the safer side of the front.
They returned to Kutuzivka after the Ukrainian forces liberated the village.
– I kissed the ground in the garden. I love my country and I believe that everything will turn out for the better, says Kozachenko.
Faith is needed, because the family’s financial situation looks bleak. The father of the family has lost his job and the mother’s parental allowance is the only regular income, that too only 20 euros per month.
Until now, the family has managed with their old savings and canned goods, but now the funds from the bad day have been eaten.
The bad days have lasted too long, and there is no end in sight.
The repair money is small, and even that has not been paid
Opposite the apartment building of the Kozachenko family stands a four-story building with only a few apartments in livable condition.
A 70-year-old lives in one of them Tatjana Reshetniak with her husband – or would live if the house stayed warm. Now they only go to repair the damage to the apartment, while they live on rent in Kharkiv.
Rešetnjak illustrates the high cost of the job. The authorities, who came to investigate the damage to their apartment, ended up awarding the couple 400 euros in compensation for the damage.
In addition, as internal refugees, they received a one-time compensation of 50 euros.
However, changing just one window costs 300 euros. Rebuilding Rešetnjak’s balcony would cost many times over.
– We appreciate the compensation, but we haven’t received the money yet, says Rešetnjak. So they have taken out a loan.
Managing the loan is difficult, as the couple’s pension income is only 190 euros per month. Half of that is now going to rent.
Another thing is how wise it is to repair an apartment if the apartments above are gone and rainwater flows through the house.
Ukraine has reclaimed the village of Kutuzivka from the occupier, but its future looks bleak.
Without new jobs and outside support, villages like Kutuzivka near the Russian border will not survive the consequences of the first year of the war.