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 Like many displaced persons in eastern Ukraine, she asked that her last name not to be published due to security concerns.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.
