Nearly half of the Kyiv region’s residents fled the metropolitan area when the war broke out on February 24 earlier this year.
Several have since returned – but to a completely new existence.
Many homes were badly damaged or destroyed after the fighting and a large part of the buildings now have to be demolished.
– I do not know what to do. We can only hope for help from the state, says Olga Chermenko, who is visiting her old apartment in a residential building in Irpin, where she has lived for almost her entire life.
“I’m afraid”
In Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, where intense fighting has been going on recently, there is a continued belief in the future, according to Tetiana, who lives in the city.
– I’m afraid. But it’s my city and my walls. As long as the apartment remains, we will stay, she says.
At the same time, thousands of residents in the Kharkiv region have been evacuated from cities and villages under Russian control.
– There is no electricity, no water and no telephone connections. I can not get in touch with my children, says Olha Tokarenko, who has lived in Tjuhuiv.
Hear their own words about life in Ukraine in the clip above.