The situation in the Kharkov region – how people live in liberated villages

In the village of Malaya Kamyshevakha, which is located in the Izyum district of the Kharkov region, during the 2 years of the war the number of residents decreased by five times. This is due to the six-month occupation, as well as constant attacks by the Russians. The story “Suspilne Kharkiv” showed how those people who decided not to leave live there.

Galina Ivleva lived peacefully for 60 years in this locality in the Kharkov region. In the fall of 2022, when the village was liberated by Ukrainian troops from Russian occupation, she and her husband Alexander returned home from evacuation, but now they are forced to live in the garage, because this is practically all that survived, along with the cellar.

Evacuation from the Kharkov region: details

In March 2022, they decided to leave, because the enemy destroyed a wall in their house with a blow. For six months, Galina dreamed of returning quickly to Malaya Kamyshevakha, because this is her homeland.

“We were away from home for six months, crying for six months. First we reached the village of Rodnoe near Barvenkovo. We were there for a month, and when shelling began there, then we went to the Dnepropetrovsk region – my husband’s aunt is there,” says a local resident.

Returning home: harm from the occupiers

Galina and Alexander’s house was damaged by shelling. It turned out that Russian occupiers lived in their yard during the occupation. There was heavy equipment in the area and trash littered the area, as can be seen in the photographs. The family decided to fill the destroyed wall in the house with boxes of enemy ammunition.

Now 19 cats and a dog live with them. Some of them lived with the couple even before the start of hostilities, while the rest were forced to look for a new home, because their owners left or died.

“Ghost villages” in the Kharkov region: what is known

In total, the Malokamyshevakha district consisted of 9 villages, but after the start of the big war they began to turn into “ghosts,” as headman Yuri Tretyakov told reporters in a comment. There are completely no communications there, the infrastructure has been destroyed, and all that remains of the houses are ruins.

If before the fighting there were about 1,000 residents living in the settlements, now there are five times fewer of them – 182.

“There is a village where there is not a single resident at all – this is the village of Kopanki. Two people live in Semenovka, two in Shpakovka. Brazhkovka and Suligovka – up to six people. That is, three or four villages where some kind of life is still glimmering. All the rest of the villages were destroyed by about 90%, so people are not returning,” said Yuri Tretyakov.

In the village of Malaya Kamyshevakha, where Galina and Alexander are from, 140 people also lived, but now there are only 15 of them. There was a paramedic station, from which soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces made a toilet. In addition, schools, clubs, and shops have been destroyed. That is, there is nothing left. The head of the district says little about the prospects, but hopes that this year it will be possible to return electricity to populated areas.

Without water, gas and electricity: how a village survives after the occupation

Yuri Tretyakov shares that various charitable organizations continue to help the remaining residents with food. They bring water and bread about once a week. Humanitarian aid is received once a month. Accordingly, everything is set up with the products, and the water is from the well.

Volunteers also help by installing windows in the houses of local residents, as well as providing firewood. At the same time, Alexander admits that there are not quite enough of them, so he has to go into the forest in those places where the sappers have already gone.

Separately, a local resident shared that he and Galina receive a minimum pension and are trying to save on everything in order to survive. Now all funds are being put aside to renovate the house.

“We hope for the help of volunteers, because construction is very expensive. We bought used bricks. We have a problem – there is no sand. But they say that the builders bring everything of their own, with mixtures,” continued Alexander.

Despite the difficult state of affairs, as Galina says, they are not going to leave the village, because it is supposedly too late to start everything from scratch. From Malaya Kamyshevakha to the front there are only a few tens of kilometers.

Let us recall that on April 11 it was reported that families were forcibly evacuated from three districts of the Kharkov region, as announced by the regional military administration. In total, according to authorities, they counted 182 families who will be forced to leave for the safety of their children.