Furniture As the slope drives down, the view of the village opens. It looks like a lash lying on the ground.
It is hard to believe that anyone could live here, in the village of Kamjanka. Almost every house has got a hit. On the roadside, signs warn of mines. Stackingly abandoned ammo boxes are lying on the ground.
More specifically, some houses have repaired roofs, and fresh -looking electric poles are decorating the side of the road. Something touches smoke – someone here lives.
Kamjanka was occupied by the Russians for half a year in the first war of 2022.
A man stands at the end of the Kuhmurainen road. Serhijus The introductory Kamjankalainen says he has returned to his home after the occupation. He belongs to a small minority.
In practice, the whole village fled when the Russians came, but only 80 in a total of 1,200 people have dared to return.
The Russians left the village a curse. Serhij tells about it in the video:
So many have paid the scary price for daring to return as the Russians fade.
Serhij lost his other eyes. The youngest mutilation of Mina was only a 14-year-old child in the event of an accident.
Then Serhij says a little reluctant: 11 villagers did not escape the Russians. They stayed, and they now live among those who have returned – other men.
Serhij implies that they are not considered good.
“They lived a good life here during the occupation,” Serhij says after the TV camera goes out.
– Why did they stay here? What did they do? I don’t understand that, he wonders.
A visit to the grushky
Indeed, it seems strange that some were left when they know how brutally the Russians have treated the local population in the areas they occupied.
Whatever the reason, the Ukrainians have an opinion of the Russians. Fresh According to opinion polls 42 % consider the occupied areas to be victims who have had to be left behind. 22 % see them as Russian hostages, but 27 % classify them as traitors or doubt.
Collaboration with the occupier is in Ukraine criminal. Those who are caught may lose permission in certain professions for up to 15 years if, for example, they prohibit Russia’s occupation in public. Cooperation with Russia had been charged with over 9,000 Ukrainians By June 2024 by.
Those who have been left in the occupation areas for unhappy reasons have been given a mockery name, “Zhduny”. The free translation of the word could be Venuri, a waiter. These people expect Russians as liberators.
Serhji tells where we find people living in the village during the occupation. The first of them we meet on the village track.
A little woman tells about the time with the Russians this story:
Then we come to a neat yard with chickens and dogs. There is a big cow in the barn and a new -looking tractor in the yard.
Vasyl and Tetjana Grushko will receive us kindly. Many mother tongues in eastern Ukraine are Russian or Russian and Ukraine’s mixed language “Surzhyk”, but Vasyl and Tetjana both speak Ukraine.
Vasyl and Tetjana tell about their shocking first encounter with the Russians:
The story of Vasyl and Tetjana corresponds to police information. Police visited Kamjanka shortly after the occupation and released the video they saw. In the video, the body is lying in the basement and the police explain that many villagers experienced the same fate.
Vasyl and Tetjana say they have planned to start, but they eventually changed their minds.
“This is my life,” Vasyl says and signed around.
– I worked for 25 years without a single day off so I could build something. I bought a new tractor before the occupation, he explains.
Grushkys say they trusted that the Ukrainians would drive the Russians before long. Now they feel they are trolley in their own home village.
– The returned villagers are so much patriot. They call us the traitors, Vasyl says injured.
Vasyl’s speeches can even give the impression that he criticizes those who fled to the west. He also says that Länsiukrainians accuse the East Ukraine for the war.
Stepan is one of the return to the village.
There were Russian -minded Kamjanka and they left with the Russians.
He has a strong opinion on what the war is.
– The reason for the war is the Maidan Revolution. That’s where everything started, Vasyl bangs.
Maidan died more than a hundred protesters of the Russian -minded president Viktor Yanukovynyn being in power just over ten years ago.
What about what Grushkyit think of the current president Volodymyr From Zelenskywhich has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance?
– At least he didn’t flee as Yanuvytš. Zelenskyi did not abandon us, says Tetjana.
Grushkyit says they wish that Ukraine would get all their country back.
– Why should you give them [venäläisille] something? Ukraine is the richest state, Vasyl says.
If the Grymskin couple was good at the Russians, as the village man Serhij claims, then the price has also paid for the war. Both have lost their foot after stepping on a mine, Tetjana just a few months ago.
“There were and there are venurs” here
The fates of the villagers of Kamjanka are harsh evidence of what the occupation war brings: ramped up and resentment. But there is hope in the village.
Returns include one family with children.
To Oleksandr and Tetjana It was clear that they would return.
– We returned as soon as we didn’t fly anything anymore, says Tetjana.
But how did they dare to bring their little sons into this “mine village”?
This is how parents say they are watching their sons:
Tetjana’s biggest fear is that you should escape again. Oleksandr is convinced that everything will turn the best. He believes that Ukraine is still flourishing, even better than before the war. According to Oleksandr, Europe will take care of it.
What about the notion of a family with children? Are they in Kamnjanka?
– There were, and is. But I don’t want to talk about them because this is a small village. I don’t want to blame anyone. It is in their conscience, replies Oleksandr.