Posted on Jul 17, 2022
Ukrainian villagers flee Russian-occupied Kherson on foot, bike and wheelchair
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https://www.npr.org/2022/07/17/ [login to see] /ukraine-villagers-flee-russia-controlled-kherson-region-bike
They emerge one by one in the morning light. Some by foot, but most come by bike or wheelchair. Ukrainian soldiers know to wait for the escapees on this dirt road.
"It is a very long journey, because the roads are terrible," says Inna Kravchenko, 52, a resident fleeing with her mother from Vysokopillia, a village in southern Ukraine now under Russian control. Next to her are three bags: all that she and her 75-year-old mother Raïsa Kozlova were able to carry with them.
More than 15 million Ukrainians have fled their homes since Russia invaded in late February, according to the United Nations. Many have fled abroad, while others have sought shelter in other parts of the country, escaping towns devastated by incessant bombardments or gripped by Russian military control.
Each day, a stream of people displaced by war arrives in the southern village of Zelenodolsk, under Ukrainian control. It's a cluster of austere, concrete buildings located in the Dnipropetrovsk region, right on the northern edge of the largely Russian-controlled Kherson region. The village has become a transit point for about 7,000 people so far, according to Dmytro Neveselyi, Zelenodolsk's mayor.
They emerge one by one in the morning light. Some by foot, but most come by bike or wheelchair. Ukrainian soldiers know to wait for the escapees on this dirt road.
"It is a very long journey, because the roads are terrible," says Inna Kravchenko, 52, a resident fleeing with her mother from Vysokopillia, a village in southern Ukraine now under Russian control. Next to her are three bags: all that she and her 75-year-old mother Raïsa Kozlova were able to carry with them.
More than 15 million Ukrainians have fled their homes since Russia invaded in late February, according to the United Nations. Many have fled abroad, while others have sought shelter in other parts of the country, escaping towns devastated by incessant bombardments or gripped by Russian military control.
Each day, a stream of people displaced by war arrives in the southern village of Zelenodolsk, under Ukrainian control. It's a cluster of austere, concrete buildings located in the Dnipropetrovsk region, right on the northern edge of the largely Russian-controlled Kherson region. The village has become a transit point for about 7,000 people so far, according to Dmytro Neveselyi, Zelenodolsk's mayor.
Ukrainian villagers flee Russian-occupied Kherson on foot, bike and wheelchair
Posted from npr.org
Russia
Ukraine
Posted 2 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."The village has taken some of its own hits, too. Electricity lines were downed by nighttime shelling in early July. The mayor says he has had to leave them unrepaired because sending an electrician up in a crane would make them a target for Russian snipers.
Each night he posts a Facebook video — modeled after President Zelenskyy's evening addresses — exhorting residents not to sow their fields of strawberry and dill just 2 miles from Russian artillery positions.
Some of his most pressing concerns may seem the most mundane. A few weeks back, when Russian shelling damaged a nearby nature preserve, 400 boars escaped their enclosures.
"Now I have residents coming to me, writing petitions, asking me to control these wild boars, to protect their potatoes and onions from the boars," he says incredulously.
He laughs in exasperation. "I am telling them, we have other pigs to deal with," he says. "Then we can deal with the wild boars."
..."The village has taken some of its own hits, too. Electricity lines were downed by nighttime shelling in early July. The mayor says he has had to leave them unrepaired because sending an electrician up in a crane would make them a target for Russian snipers.
Each night he posts a Facebook video — modeled after President Zelenskyy's evening addresses — exhorting residents not to sow their fields of strawberry and dill just 2 miles from Russian artillery positions.
Some of his most pressing concerns may seem the most mundane. A few weeks back, when Russian shelling damaged a nearby nature preserve, 400 boars escaped their enclosures.
"Now I have residents coming to me, writing petitions, asking me to control these wild boars, to protect their potatoes and onions from the boars," he says incredulously.
He laughs in exasperation. "I am telling them, we have other pigs to deal with," he says. "Then we can deal with the wild boars."
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