Local officials say tens of thousands of people who fled Ukraine's embattled Donetsk region are returning to their homes near the front lines. Some who return say life away from home was either too expensive or too uncomfortable. But with the eastern Donbas region under constant attack by Russian forces, they face a dangerous and uncertain fate.
Displaced Ukrainians Return to Face Danger And Death In Frontline Homes
- By RFE/RL
![Tamara Markova, 82, and her son Mykola Riaskov spent five days as evacuees in the central city of Dnipro before deciding to take their chances back home in their severely damaged home close to their frontline village near Kramatorsk. “We would have been separated [in Dnipro],” Markova said. ](https://gdb.rferl.org/80280000-c0a8-0242-a68e-08da6e0b7b77_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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Tamara Markova, 82, and her son Mykola Riaskov spent five days as evacuees in the central city of Dnipro before deciding to take their chances back home in their severely damaged home close to their frontline village near Kramatorsk.
“We would have been separated [in Dnipro],” Markova said.
“We would have been separated [in Dnipro],” Markova said.
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Markova said officials at the temporary shelter where they stayed in Dnipro told her she would be moved to a nursing home and her son -- his left side immobilized after a stroke -- would go to a home for the disabled. They found that unacceptable.
In their hurry to return to their home in the village of Malotaranivka (pictured), they left his wheelchair behind. It was too big to take on the bus.
In their hurry to return to their home in the village of Malotaranivka (pictured), they left his wheelchair behind. It was too big to take on the bus.
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A cross sits on a refrigerator in their shattered home.
Regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin and what his soldiers are doing to the communities around her, Markova said: “He's old. He has to be retired.”
Regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin and what his soldiers are doing to the communities around her, Markova said: “He's old. He has to be retired.”
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Their village has been repeatedly shelled, destroying homes and livelihoods and shattering the lives of civilians.
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Karyna Smulska, 18, is a waitress in the town of Pokrovsk. She returned a month after being evacuated and is now her family's primary source of income.
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According to the mayor's office, 70 percent of Pokrovsk's residents who evacuated have returned home, just like Smulska.
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On the outskirts of Pokrovsk, a man walks away from a crater left by a Russian missile that killed 35-year-old Anna Protsenko, who herself had just returned home.
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After finding that starting a new life elsewhere was costly and difficult, Protsenko came back. She was killed two days later in the missile strike.
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The missile's impact flung Protsenko against a fence, splintering it. Her mother found her dying on a bench beneath a pear tree where she’d been enjoying the afternoon. By the time her father arrived, she was dead.
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Men carry Protsenko's body during her funeral procession on the outskirts of Prokovsk on July 18.
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Protsenko's grave.
