near Kherson, the timid return of the villagers

By Peter April

Posted yesterday at 6:56pm, updated 2 hours ago

Olga Lissetskaya, 71, and her husband enjoy the last colors of autumn. During the heavy shelling, the couple and most of the neighbors fled to the church’s basement. Peter April

REPORT – Life at home is more bearable in the liberated country, even without electricity and running water.

Special Representative for Novomykolayivka

In the middle of the shed, immersed in darkness, the brushcutter motor mounted on two wheels crackles all day long. The installation may be rudimentary, but it connects the Goncharev house to life. The mini generator pumps water from the adjacent well: Valéry and his sister Natalia were able to return to their village of Nowomykolaivka three weeks ago with this makeshift do-it-yourselfer.

The southern line of the Kherson front is about 5 kilometers away. Grad rocket fire continues to fly over the city. In July, the kindergarten was destroyed by rocket fire; sometimes a Russian tank fires a shell into a corner of a house. But since the family fled on March 28, things have been “better,” says the slender 46-year-old. “I’m glad to be home again,” Valéry sums up soberly after seven months of living crammed together in a dacha near Krovinitsky, 200 kilometers away…

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