Liudmyla returned to Zahaltsi on 5 April. She saw the ashes instead of the house. She saw the place where her husband Serhii's life was cut short by high-explosive shells. The Oleksiienko spouses gave everything to their village – they spent all the money they had to evacuate their fellow villagers from the shelling. The man who saved more than a hundred people died on the last day before the capture of Zahaltsi – on 17 March 2022. Three consecutive high-explosive shells hit him and five other volunteers.