Ukraine Dispatch

Part One

Outside of a destroyed home in Ruski Tyshky in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, 48-year-old Yulia hunched over a flower bed adorned with newly sprung red tulips as she ignored the sounds of bombs in the distance. In front of the flower bed sat a rusted car without tires; it had been there since the early days of occupation, which spanned the first 72 days of the war. Yulia is from Ruski Tyshkya, a small village in the Kharkiv region that is just 23 miles away from the border.

She met her husband, Sergey, 65, here and raised two children on their small patch of land.  The destroyed house next to Yulia had been built by her great-grandfather and passed through the family for years before it was handed to Sergey and her. The couple stayed at home throughout the occupation, braving every new attack on their village and fighting on its streets. In May 2022, Yulia was at home when four missiles struck her land, one landing on her house while another hit just feet from the pavilion she was standing under.

She was injured in the attack, and the occupation authorities forced her to a hospital in Belgorod, Russia, for surgery. After her recovery, Yulia made an exodus through Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine to make it back to Kharkiv, where Sergey and she now live in an apartment. The pair have no home left in Ruski Tyshky, but they still go back to take care of the land, planting flowers and crops, cleaning up the residue of their home, and collecting the shells that have landed on their land.

With a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, Sergey displays some of the shells he has found on his land; one anti-tank missile is nearly his height, and as the spouses walk through the land, their small, black Maltese runs around with glee. They are at once a normal family and, at the same time, living near the Kharkiv frontlines. In the distance, a rocket whistles as it falls through the sky before a thunderstorm. Sergey, who said he knows exactly how far away every explosion is, scoffed and hushed. “Nothing serious. Nothing serious. Everything’s audible here. They’re merrily bombing.” he said as Yulia laughed. Sergey added that he did not know which side was bombing but that it was not far away.