A charming Ukrainian village, once known as a getaway from nearby Kyiv, was left in complete ruins after the Russian invasion of the region in March. Ninety percent of village buildings in Moschun were destroyed, including its church and cemetery. Clothes, boots, and hollowed-out tanks remained scattered throughout the town. Land mines had also been placed in a nearby forest. When I visited earlier this year, I was told the mines may take up to seven years to safely remove.
Natasha Kristian
It’s been more than five months since Russian troops withdrew from Moschun. With much of Ukraine’s national budget allocated to national defense, some residents have started cleaning and trying to repair what they can themselves.
Moschun isn’t the only place in the Kyiv Oblast (province) that has struggled to rebuild. In Bucha, where around fifty civilians were executed, a man whose home had been hit by two missile strikes told The Progressive that he paid $2,300 to clear away the rubble, and that fully repairing the damage will take an additional $20,000. Many have returned to living in their damaged homes because they can’t pay for rent elsewhere.
Natasha Kristian
Moschun resident Lydia says she found Russian packets of food on her kitchen table. She wiped them down about twenty times, she adds, but they still feel dirty. We sat at the table and drank instant coffee while she told me how her dog Maxwell went missing when the shelling began, and didn’t turn up until forty days later when Moschun was liberated. By then, his hair had turned gray from the stress.
Her house has a massive hole where it took a missile hit, and the roof was destroyed. Her neighbor Tanya’s home was also destroyed; the windows were blown out, parts of the ceiling were on the floor, and there’s a bullet hole in her television. It’s not too bad, she says. At least the walls are still up.
Lydia showed me where another neighbor, an older woman who lived alone and was killed in the attack, was temporarily buried. Ukrainian soldiers took a sheet from Lydia’s house and wrapped the body in it. They made a cross out of two sticks, and laid her in the soil by the forest. Together, we visited the grave as Lydia explained that, although they’ve reburied her since, they left the sheet and makeshift cross in the spot where she had first been placed.
Natasha Kristian
I met another woman, Victoria, while I was talking to a local shopkeeper who had lost her home and business. Victoria and her husband Volodymyr stayed in the village during the Russian occupation. We went to her home for soup, where she said the reason they stayed was because they couldn’t leave their livestock—goats, chickens, cats, and dogs—to starve or be eaten by the Russians.
During the heavy bombing, Victoria would hide in a small, rectangular metal box, where the couple once kept their valuables. She crouched in a fetal position to fit in the box as her husband kept watch, sometimes for hours.
Natasha Kristian
Another Moschun local, a woman in her eighties who goes by Baba or “Grandmother” Lida, also stayed behind. During the shelling, she put out house fires with buckets of water from her well.
There were no strategic military targets or bases in Moschun, just people’s homes. White phosphorus bombs, illegal to use near civilians, were dropped here. You can see their impact as you walk around the village; nothing is left where these bombs exploded.
Natasha Kristian
Petya and Natasha, who had a baby right before the war began, returned to find their home gone. Now they live with their infant son David in a small chicken coop next to where the house once stood.
The government gives out groceries—grain, oil, eggs, and canned food—once a week on Saturdays. The line can take up to two hours, and recipients must prove they are residents of that particular village.
Natasha Kristian
In the face of this massive destruction, few aspects of village life have remained unchanged. However, villagers have continued to tend to their fruit and vegetable gardens. No matter what state their house is in, the gardens are in neat rows, ready to harvest when fall comes. They are choosing to believe that they will be able to rebuild Moschun.