Finding hope in Slatyne on the anniversary of war
Today is a brutal and bleak anniversary. It is now two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Tuesday of this week also marked a decade since Russia first invaded Crimea, and the true beginning of this war. The bleakness is added to by the unhappy news coming in from across Ukraine. The fall of Avdiivka on 17th February, having been on the frontline since 2014, is a grim indictment of the failures of western states to adequately support Ukraine. Kupiansk is being heavily bombarded, and the news which comes out from across the frontlines is consistently grim. All the while, cities full of civilians continue to be targeted. As I write this, snow is falling thick and fast in Kharkiv; in our villages there is already a foot-deep layer covering everything and spring feels a long way away.
The question therefore comes up as to why we keep going with repairs, when destruction continues to be imposed across Ukraine. This question is quickly answered when speaking to the people whom we help. In our last newsletter, we spoke about hope and I want to give a brief account of how our work with your support has brought back hope to one village.
Around a third of our repairs have been done in Slatyne, a village which was never occupied but sat on the frontline for six months, leading to the damage or total destruction of approximately 60-70% of buildings, including 700 private homes, with 200 completely destroyed. Driving through many streets in Slatyne a year and a half ago, you were met with a post-apocalyptic hell. Only 200 people remained, most scared to leave their basements. The village also felt forgotten. There was little hope among the residents that real, sustainable aid would reach them. For the six months they had been on the frontline, neither fire service nor ambulances were allowed into the village to deal with the consequences of the shelling. The reasons behind this are understandable: the Russian army is known for its use of ‘double-tap’ attacks, where they will strike a building, and wait for the emergency services to arrive in order to strike again and maximalise casualties. Nonetheless, the consequence of these six months of relative abandonment whilst under sustained and indiscriminate shelling had led to a degree of suspicion and resentment among the remaining residents. Conducting repairs in the village seemed like an insurmountable task, but one that we ought to try to undertake.
Going to the village now, there are some streets which seem almost untouched by war: every house has windows and doors and fully repaired roofs (the latter predominantly thanks to our friends at Livyj Bereh). There is of course still much work to be done, but with 2000 people now having returned to Slatyne (only 200 having remained whilst they were on the frontline) the village is slowly coming back to life. It’s a long way off from the 6000 who once lived there, but it’s a start. The village shopping area has been almost completely destroyed, however the shops which still stand have reopened, even without windows, alongside a temporary post office in a portacabin. The train station, completely hollowed out by a direct hit, cannot function, but the train to and from Kharkiv still passes through four times a day, so the residents who return can go to work. Over two hundred children now live in the village. Being a small part of the reinvigoration of Slatyne is the greatest honour, and every single person who has donated to our repairs scheme can take some credit in this. Not only has the physical impact of the home repairs throughout the village enabled people to move home, but the hope that these repairs have provided has been transformative. In the words of the head of the village, Zhenya, our work lets people know that they are not alone or forgotten, and that those worst days when emergency services and volunteers were forbidden from reaching them are over.
This is not to say that life is easy in Slatyne. It has been a year and a half since the last time the village was hit, but the rumble of artillery strikes at the border, just 20km away serve as a constant reminder that the threat has not yet passed. Almost all of the young men from the village are on the frontlines, and it is hard to find anyone who has not lost a loved one in the war, be this on the battlefield, under shelling, or from the strokes and heart attacks which have multiplied since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. The destruction of the farms around the village and the factory where many of the residents worked has caused huge poverty. But all of this points back to the need to give people hope. We cannot know where this war will go next; there is no point pretending that the danger has past, no matter how much we can pray that this is the case, but we can give people a little bit of their lives back, so that whilst they continue to live through this hell, they are doing so with light and warmth and comfort.
So, once again we ask you to stick with us. Together, the difference we can make is unimaginably huge. We can’t do this without your help; two years into the war we remain entirely funded by your donations. Every penny you give goes directly to where it’s needed most, so please keep giving and keep fundraising. Thank you all, and slava Ukraini!
There is so much Evil, it is easy to believe that's all there is. But there is always Good, too. Thank you!