Russian bombs turn Ukraine border village into ‘hell’
Al Jazeera
Wandering among the ruins, Svitlana Zavaly was desperately searching for anything that could be salvaged from the rubble of her home destroyed by a Russian bomb in northeastern Ukraine.
“We’ve got nothing left,” said the 67-year-old resident of the village of Velyka Pysarivka which lies just five kilometres (three miles) from the Russian border.
For about 10 days in March, Russian bombs, shells and rockets rained down on the village and others along the frontier, in apparent retribution for incursions into Russia by pro-Ukraine Russian fighters.
“We had everything. And in an instant, this happened. It’s a good thing we had left two days earlier,” said Zavaly.
She and her husband had returned just for the day. They are living temporarily in Okhtyrka, a town about 40km (24.8 miles) west of Velyka Pysarivka, where they were evacuated, like many other residents of the bombed areas.