Despite Russian shelling, three women from the southern Ukrainian village of Kamianske risked their lives and walked for several hours to collect supplies from a humanitarian drop-off point in the nearby village of Stepnohirsk.
Svitlana, Lesya, and Natasha reside in the gray zone, which acts as a buffer area between the Ukrainian and Russian positions on the Zaporizhzhia front. The front line has remained largely unchanged since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The three women have chosen to stay, surviving off their gardens’ produce and taking care of their dogs despite the constant danger of artillery bombardment that has left the village in ruins.
The front line area has faced increasingly heavy bombardment since January as Russian forces prepared for the anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Lesya’s husband was killed in his garden when a Russian shell landed nearby in April of last year. Svitlana’s house was destroyed by shelling last spring, and she moved into a neighbor’s home. The women, whose last names have been withheld for security reasons, made the journey to Stepnohirsk to collect supplies, including sacks of dog food which they balanced on their bicycles for the return trip.
Back home, they have transformed their cellars into comfortable living spaces to take shelter from the shelling.
Natasha said, “We sit in the cellars, which already look like hotels. We wait for victory. We pray.” As tears welled up in her eyes.
Svitlana, referring to Kamianske, expressed her deep connection to the place, saying, “I’m born there, baptized there. I will die there.”
Local firefighters, including Serhii, the commander of the local fire station in Stepnohirsk, continue to brave the village. They extinguish fires caused by shelling, rescue those injured, and bring in humanitarian supplies for the remaining residents.
Serhii, whose home and almost every building in Kamianske was destroyed by Russian shelling, showed pictures of his rose garden before and after the arrival of what he referred to as the “Russian world.”
Alla Viktorivna, who sells produce at a street market in Stepnohirsk, mentioned the lack of customers due to the dwindling population in the village.
Despite the dangers, she never thought of leaving, valuing her home, garden, and pets too much.
When the shelling begins, she takes cover in her cellar, but sometimes she has no time to do so during the night and simply rolls under her sofa, listening to the whistling and smashing sounds.
Reporting from Stepnohirsk, Ukraine, Oleksandr Chubko