Narcissus and green shoots frame piles of crooked metal and crushed wood, where houses once stood. Tulips blow in the wind between damaged steel and crushed stone. The cherry blossoms fall from the branches, facing down into large craters on the side of the road. For the approximately 800 inhabitants who lived in Novoselivka before the war, the new blooms merely heralded the arrival of spring. Now, for the few villagers who remain in the devastated village, they are reminded of the passage of time, as the weeks go by and they remain homeless, wondering where they will go next. The cherry blossoms herald the arrival of spring amid the devastation in the village of Novoselivka, on the outskirts of Chernihiv. Ashley Stewart Novoselivka carried the brunt of the Russian advance on Chernihiv as the army surrounded the city in the early days of the war in Ukraine. A city of about 300,000 inhabitants, Chernihiv is less than 100 km from the Russian-Belarusian border and the largest city on the road to Kyiv, 130 km south. The siege of Chernihiv lasted five weeks before the Russians retreated in early April, leaving hundreds dead and severely damaged infrastructure. In Novoselivka, only 14 people remain – most of them elderly. As we reach the village, many of them surround our car, mistakenly assuming that we are an aid vehicle. The villagers rush to our car as we approach, assuming we are humanists. Ashley Stewart They stayed in the village as Russian troops gathered on a nearby hillside seven weeks ago, they say, as their younger neighbors fled. In the following weeks, the village was pounded by Russian bombardment. They have since found accommodation with locals in a nearby village, while waiting for suitable temporary accommodation and details for rebuilding their homes. While they wait, they return every day to the corpses of their ruined houses, to take care of their gardens. Most locals here grow their own vegetables, such as potatoes and carrots. “I come to the garden to relax and not pay attention to the war,” says Olha Makarenko. The 70-year-old says that her hearing was damaged by the intense bombardment that the village experienced at the hands of the Russian army and now she is almost deaf. “It’s so difficult. I can not hear. But what can I do? We have to live it. “ During the day, the villagers return to Novoselivka to tend their gardens and gather in front of one of the only remaining buildings in the village. Ashley Stewart Makarenko was born in Chornobyl. It was evacuated to Novoselivka in 1986, following a nuclear accident at a power plant. She asks, in tears, why the tragedy followed her. “All my houses have been destroyed in my life.” During the worst siege, Makarenko and her husband spent 21 days with a friend in their basement, her house destroyed. He emerged with the others who remained in mid-March and moved to a nearby village, where they have since been crammed into the reserve rooms of the locals.
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They returned in the aftermath of the liberation of the area in early April and have been returning to their gardens every day since. When not engaged in gardening, they gather together outside one of the only buildings still standing in the village, which they say is now 80 percent destroyed. “I wanted to be here with my people,” Makarenko said of her decision not to leave the village, adding that many older residents were not moving and had no choice but to stay. “Now I do not know where we can live or what we can do. We’re just waiting. “
“Planes flew from Belarus”
On the morning of February 24, hundreds of Russian tanks rolled into Chernihiv on their way to Kyiv. By February 25, Russia’s military spokesman announced that they had completed the siege of the strategically important city. Thus began a five-week siege. The 1st Army Brigade of the Ukrainian Army was Chernihiv’s most important line of defense, facing Russian advances for weeks. As Russian planes targeted military positions with missiles, the city refused to surrender, so the political infrastructure came under increasing attack. Yuri Polyuk, head of the Chernihiv forensic bureau, put the death toll from the war at about 700, including civilians and the military. This does not count the number who died at the hospital. The ruins of a teddy bear on the streets of Novoselivka. In the northeastern suburbs of Chernihiv, Novoselivka was the first line of battle for the city. “In the early days, a plane came from 4 in the morning until 6 in the morning and I left my house to check where it was flying from. He was flying from Belarus. “The planes flew from Belarus, dropped bombs on us, turned around and flew back,” said Maria Zamaraeva, whose home was partially destroyed. “Seven people were killed here. “Many were injured.” Most of the villagers were born in Novoselivka and lived here all their lives. They say it is a close-knit community where everyone knows each other. Seeing their village surrounded, the younger villagers left for neighboring cities or other parts of Ukraine. Those who stayed went underground, to the basement of the house of anyone who was considered safer. They say that they were not afraid at that moment, because they believed that the battle would end in a few days. But many ended up staying underground for weeks without seeing the sunlight. 2:13 Civilians evacuated from besieged Mariupol steel plant Civilians evacuated from besieged Mariupol steel plant For some, leaving was not easy due to weakness or disability. Valentina Tischenko relies on a cane to help her move and says she could not escape easily. He says many of the villagers found it difficult to maintain themselves because Russian soldiers targeted them when they were trying to cook. They survived on whatever portions they had at home. “We tried to boil the potatoes on the fire, but the Russians fired from the hills, so we can’t even cook potatoes,” he says. Zamaraeva says the bombing had left many “crazy”. She watched one of her neighbors “torn apart” by bombing and left her injured. “She was in her kitchen cooking food. They targeted her house. My house is across from her house, across the street. “And we thought it was our home,” he says. Tulips among the wreckage of a house in Novoselivka, on the outskirts of Chernihiv. Ashley Stewart When the soldiers entered the village, he says they were not intimidating, but disparaging. They approached, holding machine guns, and asked, “How come you are not dead here yet?” “They looked at my husband’s passport and said, ‘He’m 80, I’m 70, you’re going to die anyway,’” Makarenko said. Due to her damaged hearing, which was caused by the incessant bombardments, she raises her head to hear questions and cries silently as she asks for them to be repeated. Makarenko was in the basement of her friend Mikhailo Kirusho when her house was destroyed. He says it burned completely in 30 minutes. “Miklhailo came out of his cellar and said, ‘Olha, your house is on fire.’ “I could not even get up. I was so upset. “
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Kiruso says this is not the first time Novoselivka has been destroyed. He also says it was demolished during World War II in 1943. “Then people were taken to barns and burned alive. Then, it was the Nazis and it turns out that the Russians are doing the same thing now. “But the Russians are worse than the Nazis.” “Maybe this place is cursed.” Russian soldiers have been stationed at the local school and kindergarten in the village, Kirusho says. That part of the village escaped. A ruined apartment building in Novoselivka. Ashley Stewart One morning, after weeks of continuous bombardment, Kiruso says he went out of his basement to smoke. He noticed four soldiers, whom he thought were Ukrainians. I said, “Hello Cossacks,” or then I looked and saw that they were Russians. They said: “How are you still here? We have already wiped you from the face of the earth. “ “Then they gave us half an hour to get out of here.” The rest of the villagers gathered and boarded a trailer, pulled behind a small tractor and took refuge in the nearby village of Voznesensk, where they were picked up by residents.
“They rolled over the graves, back and forth”
On March 29, the Russian military announced it would “drastically reduce military activity” in northern Ukraine, after weeks of halted advance around Kyiv. On April 1, Ukraine claimed that Russian forces were withdrawing from the Chernihiv region. Within a few days, the Russians left, a trail of destruction and landmines in their path. Ukrainian soldier Oleh Shuloa saw major disaster when he fought in Chernihiv as part of the city’s self-defense unit. Now that the area has been liberated, he is stationed in Novoselivka as a member of the National Guard of Ukraine, checking the documents of anyone attempting to enter. Oleh Shuloa, a member of the Ukrainian army, in Novoselivka. Asli …
