‘I Don’t Have Anyone Left’: What Life Is Like for Refugees in Ukraine

‘I Don’t Have Anyone Left’: What Life Is Like for Refugees in Ukraine
Valeriy Ivanenko outside the apartment in Bahmut, Ukraine, where he and his wife, Vira, sought refuge after fleeing their home. Nolan Peterson/The Daily Signal
Nolan Peterson
Updated:

KURAKHOVO, Ukraine—They all have a reason to go home.

For some, it’s to reunite with friends and family, to regain their dignity, or to find a job so they can afford to pay the rent and buy groceries. Others simply want to rejoin the lives they left behind to escape the Russian artillery and rockets.

“Going back home is the only thing that gives me hope,” said 83-year-old Alexandra, who fled her home in the eastern Ukrainian town of Marinka when the shelling became “too scary.” Like many displaced persons in eastern Ukraine, she asked that her last name not to be published due to security concerns.

Alexandra sat alone on the front door stoop of a shelter for internally displaced persons in Kurakhovo, an eastern Ukrainian town about 7 miles west of the front lines. The shelter, which used to be a kindergarten, is now home to 72 people.

Alexandra’s hands were folded. She wore a long, black sweater. And, as is the custom among many older women in Ukraine, a colorful shawl covered her gray hair.

Alexandra, 83, fled her home in Marinka when the shelling became "too scary." (Nolan Peterson/The Daily Signal)
Alexandra, 83, fled her home in Marinka when the shelling became "too scary." Nolan Peterson/The Daily Signal
Nolan Peterson
Nolan Peterson
Author
Nolan Peterson is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and an independent defense consultant based in Kyiv and Washington. A former U.S. Air Force Special Operations pilot and veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Peterson has more than nine years of experience reporting from Ukraine's front lines.
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