OPYTNE, Ukraine—One afternoon in January 2015, 78-year-old Maria Gorpynych stood on her porch and anxiously watched her son Victor run the short distance to the home of a neighboring family. At the time, Opytne, located in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, was caught in the middle of heavy fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian soldiers. Victor wanted to help the neighbors wrap a gas pipe in rubber to protect it from shelling.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
World Politics Review: In Donbas, life amid the ravages of a forgotten war
An elderly woman stands in front of her demaged house after recent shelling in Novoluhanske on Dec. 20, 2017.
