“War began with tears,” recalls Halyna Bobrakova, who lived in the village of Zelene. Her daughter called from Zaporizhzhia. The city was under missile strikes.

Halyna’s in-laws had already lived through war — in 2014 they fled from Horlivka. Back then she still did not believe that something like that could happen to her. But in 2022 the war came to her land as well. Her native village lies not far from Orikhiv and Pokrovka, which the russians shell regularly. The school where she worked, the lyceum, the restaurant, the sports complex, dozens of homes were damaged. Warehouses, farms, and infrastructure near the village were destroyed.

“One of the episodes we witnessed ourselves. We were driving with my boss to sell grain — and at that very moment a missile struck the grain elevator. We managed to escape by car. It was a terrifying blast. I saw how a combine disc can slice through a tree… That stayed etched in my memory.”

Before the war, she dreamed of a peaceful old age, flowers, and tending to her household.  The war took even her dreams. “I thought I would retire and take up farming. But everything turned out completely differently.” Mrs. Halyna wants to return home if it survives.