Ekol warehouse skeleton remains abandoned after it suffered rocket attack in Stoyanka, Ukraine.Photography by Anton Skyba/The Globe and Mail
Victoria Prokopenko isn’t going to let Russian rockets drive her out of her home in Horenychi, a small town just north of Kyiv.
Horenychi is less than 20 kilometres from Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv that has been the scene of fierce fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces for weeks. The Ukrainians recently recaptured Irpin but attacks from both sides continue and there’s still regular shelling in the area.
Ms. Prokopenko has learned to live with the noise and the bombs and the fear. “The day before yesterday it was very, very loud,” she said Friday as she walked home from a quick trip to the store. She pointed down the road to where the Ukrainian army had set up an artillery gun as part of the counterattack. “The sky was on fire,” she said. “That’s my life. That’s how I live here.”
She remains resolute. She isn’t going anywhere even though there’s a shortage of some food products in town. And even though the supply of heating fuel has been cut. And even though every family with children has left. And even though her niece was so traumatized by the shelling that she had a panic attack.
Ms. Prokopenko was born here, raised here. She has a son in the army, a daughter in Kyiv and neighbours who rely on her. “For me it’s nonsense as a mother to leave my children behind. I can’t do it,” she said. Then she smiled and added: “When my daughter said, ‘Mum, you need to leave,’ I said, ‘What do you mean? The Russians come and I’m not at home to wave hello?’ ”
The dark signs of war aren’t hard to find around Horenychi. Just down the road in Stoyanka, a giant warehouse belonging to Turkey-based Ekol Logistics has been blown apart, the result of a rocket attack. Part of the sprawling complex has been completely levelled and the remainder is little more than twisted metal and blackened walls. The parking lot is strewn with broken glass, bits of shrapnel and burned out trucks. Ekol closed the warehouse weeks ago and the company said no one was injured in the attack.
Alexander Vasyliovych sells jarred pickles, green onions and eggs from the trunk of his red Lada in the centre of Horenychi.
On Friday afternoon another missile slammed into the warehouse, causing a loud explosion and a plume of smoke. It wasn’t clear whether anyone had been injured.
Closer to Horenychi, a gas station and adjacent café have also been blown up. All that’s left are a few bright orange seats and a flowered design along the outside wall.
Russian troops have been withdrawing from Irpin and other areas north of Kyiv in recent days, ostensibly to concentrate on eastern and southern Ukraine. On Tuesday Moscow said the pullback was designed “to increase mutual trust,” but there has been little of that around Horenychi, where bombardments have been a daily occurrence.
“It’s scary,” said Nadiya Mykhaylivna. She was selling milk from the back of her car in the centre of Horenychi on Friday because the processing plant has been closed owing to the war. “It’s scary when it’s loud. It’s scary when it’s quiet because you don’t know when it will be loud again.”
She’s been living here for 35 years. She has a husband, two children and no intention of pulling out. “It’s our place,” she said. “We’ll stay here and see how it goes.”
She’s been doing her part to help out. She sells the milk on behalf of a local farmer and they’ve refused to jack up the price – sticking to around 85 cents a litre – even though there’s a shortage and they could make a good profit.
Across the parking lot, Alexander Vasyliovych was selling jarred pickles, green onions and eggs from the trunk of his red Lada. “It’s very bad,” he said when asked about life in town. Then he pulled out a piece of shrapnel that fell on his house and pointed to the depression in the street caused by a bomb.
He also doesn’t want to leave but he’s feeling pressure from his wife and relatives living abroad who have been urging him to get out of town. His wife is worried that the Russians will launch a chemical attack and she wants to head to Paris and stay with friends. The Russians “will not capture Ukraine,” he says. “But they can destroy it.”
He’s a 66-year-old war veteran with unshakeable faith in the Ukrainian army and his country. “I love Ukraine so much,” he said, wiping away tears. “There’s no better place on Earth.”
Dmytro Mudryi, 28 stands outside his parent's small convenience store in Horenychi, north of Kyiv.
Dmytro Mudryi came to Horenychi from another nearby town to help his parents manage a small corner store. They left briefly for Kyiv and then western Ukraine but felt compelled to return despite the shelling.
As he closed up early on Friday, Mr. Mudryi, 28, said people around here don’t have much and life was hard enough before the invasion. Now prices at the shop have been climbing and some cheaper products, such as sardines, are scarce.
But he and his parents don’t plan on heading west again. “I don’t see a point to leave and my parents don’t see a point to leave,” he said. Along with helping out at the shop, Mr. Mudryi has joined the Territorial Defence Forces and he’s waiting for a call up. “I want to be in the place where I belong,” he said.
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Paul Waldie