The road from Mariupol to Shyrokyne, isn’t long, but it is eerily quiet and devoid of any movement beyond the occasional military checkpoint and pheasant.
Traveling here feels a bit like stepping through a wardrobe into another world — one moment you’re working your way through the traffic and bustle of Mariupol’s left bank and the next you’re on deserted roads that snake through open fields, with your senses beginning to heighten. Every time I make the journey I get the same feeling of alertness and wonder.
The trip makes me think about the people who lived in Shyrokyne when the war broke out, how they must have fled down this road bringing only what they could carry. I wonder now, five years later, how often they dream of returning home and what kinds of lives look like now.
It’s a thought that led me to meet and film interviews with three such people, Daria, Vera, Galina, who were all elderly residents of Shyrokyne and heavily affected in the initial outbreak of war. With the majority of ex-Shyrokyntsy residents now living in Mariupol, it was easy enough to find those who wanted to talk much harder than I thought it would be to listen to their stories.
I met the women at their apartments, a good chance to see for myself how they live. After leaving everything they owned in Shyrokyne, it is a life with very little. This is was most true for Galina, one of the last people to leave Shyroykne and who only left after she was injured.
As we entered her dark apartment, I could already feel the sorrow coming off her, an unfortunate side effect of living with stage-three cancer, loneliness and unpleasant memories. A quick observation of her kitchen told me she had nothing.
In a bowl in a glass cabinet, I saw a crust of bread, three oranges and two eggs. There didn’t seem to be any other food in the apartment.
Although she welcomed my translator and me in the typical, friendly Ukrainian manner, it was clear she wasn’t looking forward to recounting her experiences or revealing the degrading manner in which she now lives.
In the end it was one of the most emotional interviews I have ever taken. She described how she refused to leave and how she rescued Shyrokyne’s animals. Her descent into poverty not only filled me with awe and admiration but also anger that she’s been left to suffer in silence.
Unfortunately, Galina’s situation isn’t unique among internally displaced people in Ukraine.
With little to no pensions, no assistance for accommodations, no belongings and most importantly no documents, there are thousands of people like Galina, unable to work, unable to claim public assistance and feeling, as they say, “not wanted here, and not wanted there.”
Galina, one of the last civilians to leave the abandoned war front town of Shyrokyne just east of Mariupol, pictured on Oct. 7, 2019. (Reece Lynch)
Without government support, they find themselves living on donations from various NGOs that operate in the region, the charity of neighbors and the hope that the new government might begin to see them as citizens rather than inconveniences.
Zelensky has promised to end the war and bring peace, but there’s more he can do himself. If he wants to surpass his predecessor and follow through on his commitments to the Ukrainian people, he needs to offer real support to the citizens who have been abandoned for the past five years.
Although I admit, it’s hard to see a happy ending for the residents of Shyrokyne. Although Shyrokyne is now firmly under UAF control, the positions there still receive regular bombardment and mines and booby traps left over from the occupation, makes for hazardous living conditions.
Even if the war ended tomorrow, nobody would be able to return instantly. Shyrokyne is a wreck, with little intact infrastructure – not a single building is unscathed. It remains the only village abandoned due to war in mainland Europe. While many people express hopes of returning and rebuilding, I worried that their determination won’t be enough.
One thing that struck me was how much loyalty and faith these people have in the Ukrainian state despite being treated so unfairly by it. I can only hope and implore the new government to step up and offer the aide they desperately need.
