In a landscape of ruins in southern Ukraine, battered and punished by a year of Russian bombardment, the town of Orikhiv stands out as much for the regular pounding it endures as the stamina, suffering and resistance of those who remain.
For months, the mayor of the town has been urging residents to evacuate in order to protect themselves from Russian advances.
But his deputy mayor, Svitlana Mandrych, refuses to leave the town.
Instead, she has turned the basement of the city hall into an aid centre, offering food and shelter to all who come, in the process earning the nickname the Unbreakable Angel of Orikhiv.
As a woman, it makes it her feel more self-assured and courageous when she hears the nickname, she told CTV National News, acknowledging that she’s also often very afraid.
Fourteen thousand people lived in Orikhiv before the Russians invaded Ukraine. Now, maybe 1,200 are left. Those still in the town tend to be the old and the poor, clinging to lives that no longer exist, and refusing or unable to leave.
Volunteers deliver water in the town firetruck under the threat of attack from Russian artillery, just a few kilometres away, bringing the precious resource into dark basements where neighbourhood tanks are filled and shared.
Another resident named Svitlana told CTV National News that she struggles with fear and loneliness. She’s 73 years old, and while she tells her children that they’re going to get through this, she’s worried deep down that she won’t see the rest of her family again.
A man named Valentin is trapped in the same peril, with no money to leave and nowhere to go.
He said he has survived the shelling multiple times by riding his bike through it.
Everything above the deputy mayor’s basement shelter was bombed early in the invasion, rousing a personal promise from Mandrych, who felt it was her duty to stay
Her work is to help people, she said, adding that her family has decided to stay until Ukraine wins.
She says she’s already planning for and dreaming of that moment, when the Russians are gone and Orikhiv can rebuild.
There is a lot of fighting ahead before that can ever happen. Those in Orikhiv are just a few of the tens of thousands of Ukranian civilians living within a few kilometres of the conflict. Three civilians were killed Sunday morning in what was described as massive Russian artillery bombardment on a village in southern Ukraine. European leaders warn that Ukraine is critically short of ammunition as the second year of this war begins.
Ukraine’s south may become a crucial battleground as the war against Russia enters a second year and both countries prepare for renewed fighting in the spring.
With files from CTVNews.ca`s Alexandra Mae Jones
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