ANTHONY PIZZOFERRATO

// The Unbreakables //

Nearly 4.7 million people have left Ukraine since April 12, 2022. Another 7.1 million have left their homes and become displaced within the country. Many of these people are now living in shelters or someone else’s home, waiting for the war to end. Every refugee I spoke to told me the same thing, that they did not want to leave Ukraine. They said it is their home and they will wait for the day when they can finally return. Most refugees from Ukraine are from Kharkiv, Mariupol, Dnipro, and the Donbas region. However, some are from Crimea, a peninsula that was taken by Russia in 2014.

The Crimean Tatars   

Although Crimea is their homeland, most of their family grew up in Uzbekistan. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin forced them to leave Crimea in 1944, the mother told me that only Russians were allowed to stay. In 2014, they were afraid Russia would force them to leave Crimea again.

Their grandmother was a young girl, and all of their men were at war. The only people who were home were women and children. When her mother was 11 years old, soldiers arrived with guns, gathered up all of the women and children, and put them on a train meant for animals. They cleared every village of their people and sent them to Uzbekistan. Some went to Kazakhstan or Tajikistan. It took 4 to 5 days to get to Uzbekistan. People died on the train, and some women delivered children during this journey. They took nothing with them except maybe some money, and their lives were left in Crimea. The people of Uzbekistan treated them very well. They were kind, brought them food, and helped with clothes. The Tatars took up jobs in agriculture.

A new life started in Uzbekistan. The daughters mother was born there, as well as she and her siblings. However, in 1996, her father left for Crimea because he wanted to return to their homeland. He obtained empty land to farm and eventually built a home for the family. They relocated from Uzbekistan to Crimea.

During the 1980s, it had been difficult for them to return to Crimea. Tatars did not start returning until the Russian government agreed to this.

She said “When Crimea belonged to Ukraine, it was good for us Tatars. We had freedom; you could say what you wanted and do what you wanted. However, when the Russians came in 2014, the nightmare began immediately. They didn’t want Tatars there.”

Maria

Maria Kaliuzhnaya (24) from Kharkiv. Her hobbies include poetry, painting, and illustrating. She and her husband Dmitry traveled to Lviv by car, fleeing for their lives like many others. She is from Pyatihatki, a neighborhood of Kharkiv. Her neighbor’s home was destroyed by a Russian rocket, and her home was destroyed the next day. She lost everything.

Maria saw a lot of destruction in Kharkiv. Russian soldiers were shooting at civilian cars while she and her husband were trying to leave. She told me the passenger side window and windshield of her car were shot. Every day, they passed by areas that had experienced damage from explosions. They had to run to different hospitals, which were in very poor condition. Every location they arrived at was short on food and medical supplies.

Maria told me she doesn’t feel safe anywhere right now, not even in Lviv. She currently has no plans and is living each day as it comes while waiting for a time to return back to Kharkiv and restart her life. Her husband, Dmitry, had plans to open an Asian restaurant. However, now they are just cooking in the shelter for other people. She also mentioned that many Russian people don’t understand what’s happening in Ukraine and they think it’s a joke.

Maria asks “What’s the reason for this war?”

When she and her husband return to Kharkiv, they are going to build a new home and try to pick up where they left off. She said they don’t want to leave Ukraine because it’s their home.

Vicktor

Vicktor (40), from Kyiv, worked as an export sales manager and owned a glass factory in Hostomel. His wife and daughter are now living in Germany while he stays in Lviv waiting to see if he will be given orders to fight. He cannot leave the country.

Vicktor and his family had stayed at their home in Irpin until early March. “On March 5, Russian tanks entered our residence. Russia organized something like an office for their forces inside our residence,” he said. “Russians destroyed every flat in our residence. They broke computers, phones….everything which looked valuable to them.” When Vicktor and others from the apartment building told the Russians they would open their doors if they agreed to refrain from destroying the flats, the Russians refused and broke every door of every flat. The first of the 5 waves destroyed everything. They stole everything from the shops, put the stolen food outside, and gave it to the Ukrainians as if they had saved their lives. Vicktor said it was complete bullshit and obvious propaganda.

Vicktor and his family lived with other people in the basement of their apartment building. It was about 40 square meters in size. Sometimes, they were allowed to go outside to cook food on the fire.

“Every day brought us some horrible news,” he said. “From the 7th day, we saw a group of our people going by car or foot near our residence. 4 of our cars had as many people crammed into them as possible. While these tanks were directed at us and the soldiers kept an eye on us, we took a huge risk and left the residence. We came across 5 other Russian waves and every one of them looked at us with their weapons aimed at us. Each time, we knew that anything could happen and they might shoot. When we were in a safe place and renewed our phones and SIM cards, we found out that a group of people were shot 2 days earlier after they tried to escape. 2 days after us, another group of people were shot when they tried to escape. I know some people were killed while escaping, so I know that we are quite lucky.”  

Vicktor told me “I don’t have any military experience, but now, with these courses, I would like to get some. Maybe we would get some extended course somewhere else, because I don’t want to have any Russian order here.”

Nadia

Nadia Borovenko on the bus ride from Lviv to Warsaw. She is from Bucha, one of the hardest hit cities west of Kyiv. She is 39 years old and has two children that are 8 and 11 years old. Nadia is a food photographer and loves photography as much as me. She told me that her husband joined the territorial defense. He is now in the Army in Lviv and may have to leave for Kyiv. Nadia sent me pictures of her apartment building in Bucha, which had sustained a significant amount of damage due to Russian artillery. Thankfully, the building is still standing.

Escaping Irpin

Civilians continued to be evacuated from Irpin on March 28, 2022, one of the hardest hit areas near Kyiv, located on the northwest outskirts of the capital. There weren’t as many people from Irpin as the previous weeks, but the number was still significant. Most were elderly and/or disabled. Some were young people who were arriving by ambulances, cars, and buses.

There was heavy artillery in the background most of the day and night, and it sounded much closer than it did on previous days. Most likely, it was from the ongoing Ukrainian offensive to clear Russian troops out of the region.

During the early days, the railway continued to be one one of the most safe ways to evacuate cities throughout Ukraine for those who wished to head east towards Lviv. The travel time was significantly increased while the number of trains operating decreased adding to the chaos and stress for those trying to flee their homes. However the Ukrainian railway served as a a path to safety and life for some while others were not so lucky.

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