Life in the vicinity of the Dnieper. Try to understand what it's like to start over

In recent days, together with the Polish Humanitarian Action, we visited several towns in the Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporizhia oblasts We talked to refugees from the east, volunteers mitigating the effects of Russian terror and residents whose days pass under the sign of howling sirens and the turmoil of war.

Dnipro "They came to water the flowers and died" Work on the block of flats continues.

People take home furnishings and return with building materials Heaps of rubble every few meters, piles of windows, old clothes, bedding.

On January 14, a large apartment block on Zwycięstwa Street in Dnipro was hit by a Russian rocket Over 70 apartments ceased to exist in an instant, over 40 people lost their lives.

As locals say, there is no object nearby that could be a "reasonable" military target for the Russians There are no factories or military warehouses here.

Destroyed block of flats in Dnieper Daniel Drob / Gazeta pl Many apartments - not to mention those that have disappeared - are not suitable for renovation.

Where possible, repairs are underway A dozen or so meters from the rocket hole, Walentin and Natalia have an apartment on the ground floor.

They were not home when the impact occurred On February 28, after the invasion, they left the Dnieper to the west.

As they say, part of their family fled to Poland In the house of Natalia and Valentin, the explosion broke the glass from the windows.

They install new ones "We want to live here again as soon as possible," says Walentin.

Walentin and Natalia say they knew people who died in the Russian attack - Among the dead are also friends of our neighbors.

They didn't even live here, they just came to water the plants They watered the flowers and died, they say.

Destroyed block of flats in Dnieper Daniel Drob/Gazeta pl The ruins are surrounded by railings.

In front of them, the inhabitants of the Dnieper laid flowers, mascots, candles The rocket left a hole several meters wide in the block.

If you look at the right angle, you can see the remains of everyday life - rooms, corridors, kitchens Here you can see an oven and a fridge, there are shelves, a wall unit, a piece of table, kitchen utensils.

Kamieńskie "What if now, on the anniversary, the Russians bomb even more?" From the Dnieper we go a few dozen kilometers to the west, to the town of Kamieńskie.

Here we listen to a session with mobile psychologists of the Polish Humanitarian Action In the hall there is a group of women who evacuated from the Donetsk region after the Russian attack.

Refugee women talk to psychologists about how to deal with anxiety accompanying the anniversary of February 24 Professionals discuss simple techniques that help you control difficult emotions.

- Theory is boring and useless in this situation Our task is to show how to implement practical solutions in everyday situations.

It works When we follow the dynamics, we see that in the first sessions people are closed, but when they use our advice, try new things, they open up - says Mykyta Checzun, a psychologist who co-leads the session with the refugees.

In March, the women - Oksana, Tamara, Olga, Svetlana and Natalia - came to the Kamieńskis from the vicinity of Avdiivka, which had been repeatedly bombed by the Russians Fierce fighting continues for the town.

Participants of the psychological session admit that in recent days their anxiety has been increasing They say there's no telling what will happen on the anniversary of the full-scale invasion.

- We can't go through the same thing again, run away from here to a new place Where would we go if the threat reached here as well? How far? - we hear.

The participants of the session say that their families - parents, grandparents - are still in the Donetsk region The husbands joined them after a few months.

In their hometown, the factory was closed, there was no work “Over the course of the year, we've calmed down a bit, we've gotten used to our situation.

But what if now, on the anniversary, the Russians will bomb even more? Then our loved ones will no longer be relatively safe There is a mortal danger again, and we are even more worried that everything will be destroyed, that it will be even harder - we hear from one of the refugees.

The woman emphasizes that for them the war has been going on since 2014 We've moved twice already.

In 2014, we were leaving with small children in our arms We came back in 2017, started rebuilding our homes, went to work.

And I had to run again The second time was especially hard, it was awful.

That's why we need psychological support now - he says and adds: - Try to understand what it's like to start life again We just want stability now.

Psychological session of the Polish Humanitarian Organization in the city of Kamieńskie Daniel Drob/Gazeta pl The women mention that they did not know the city they came to.

They didn't know people They had no job and no money.

They say it's hard Of the aid granted to internally displaced persons, little is left for living.

They rent apartments in the city, so you have to pay the rent Not even 100 hryvnias remain.

They say things are different with the locals - My neighbors understand everything, they help us, they support people from our commune.

After all, we came here with something, but the young people who escaped Mariupol literally escaped barefoot The local residents organized everything for them - furniture, blankets, cutlery.

Everything,” recalls one woman Another adds: "It varies.

People here live in their homes, and we are strangers, which can make some people nervous But we're not provoking anyone.

We treat others in a neutral way, but we understand that somehow we can influence the local community, arouse anger For example, some may be angry that their husbands are at the front while others are not.

They say they want to go home as soon as the situation calms down Because they are used to living without heating or electricity.

It is important that there is peace, and everything can be rebuilt - As they say, "it's a ruin, It's not easy to hear things like that, she says.

- The next day, rocket fire was carried out We stayed in the apartment because we knew that the rockets would miss us, but the neighbors packed up, took the children and sat in the shelter for an hour.

"How terrible it is," they said later, and I replied: "You can imagine that the same thing was right outside our windows, right next to us, every day, every hour And you ask us why we don't come back," recalls Olga .

Psychologist Mykyta Checzun emphasizes that fear is one of the biggest problems of people in a war-torn country today - It causes tension in society.

This session showed us how difficult it is to deal with emotions that cause frustration in everyday life, interfere with communication with other people, with children Today we talked about, for example, that unwashed dishes can cause a huge row in the house, but it's not the dishes that are the problem, but the constant fear.

We worked on it during the session We emphasized that even if it comes to that (this is about a new Russian offensive - ed.

), it will not look like a year ago - he says - People are afraid that they will "go crazy", they are afraid that their reactions are not normal, that they are wrong.

Our mission is to educate, to make them aware that their feelings are completely normal Nobody taught our psyche how to react to bombs.

We don't know that Reactions are spontaneous, normal and thanks to them people can survive - he adds.

Smile in Zaporozhye In nearby Zaporizhia we meet with volunteers from the Posmiszka (Smile) group, which cooperates with the Polish Humanitarian Action Before February 24, Posmiszka mainly provided psychological support.

Today, it is broadly understood humanitarian aid addressed, among others, to refugees from the occupied territories Posmiszka supplies the needy with food parcels, hygiene products and clothes.

- Needs depend on the season Winter will end soon, spring will come, and when people evacuated, they got winter clothes from aid organizations.

Now lighter clothes are needed - says Maksym, a volunteer Karina, one of the organization's coordinators, adds that today the need for psychological support is particularly felt.

- People live under constant stress Zaporozhye is close to the front, and it still happens that the inhabitants are awakened by the sound of gunshots.

Children living in centers for internally displaced persons face enormous problems Some are unable to socialize.

Some of them, after the difficult experiences in the occupied territories, are unable to speak, others react with aggression, says Karina She adds that psychological support works, after some time the children speak again and calm down.

Sometimes it takes weeks, sometimes months As the coordinator says, there is still a lot of work ahead of aid organizations.

"Even when the war is over, many human traumas will still need healing," he said According to our interlocutors, by the end of last year, Posmiszka volunteers helped in one way or another more than 500,000 people who fled from the Russians from the Kherson, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk and Mykolaiv regions.

Karina talks about why she decided to get involved in humanitarian activities - On February 24, we all woke up in the morning and we already knew that the war had begun, we're being bombarded.

We were all shocked and absolutely everyone wanted to do something useful This feeling came from within.

That was my motivation: to get involved in valuable, necessary help,” he says - For me, this is the meaning of life.

Why am I doing this? Well, for the win So that people can get what they need and not be treated second-class.

After all, they come from places where they experienced very bad things - says Maksym Myrowe.

"We hear explosions, all these sounds from Nikopol, from Marganiec" On Sunday we visit Myrowe near Tomakiwka The village lies within the borders of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, but it is closer to Zaporozhye than to the Dnieper.

It's a small town There is an Orthodox church, a school, a shop where locals gather, but also a small bar.

Above everything is a huge grain elevator Children are riding bicycles, someone is shopping, a group of men starts the car on the push.

It's quiet here for the moment, but a 40-minute drive south is enough to reach the Dnieper River Enerhodar and the Russians are already on the other shore.

Sirens in this area wail several times a day Myrowe Daniel Drob/Gazeta.

pl - Everything was fine here until the war Now every day alarms, alarms, alarms - says Marija Korogodzka.

- We hear explosions, all these sounds from Nikopol, from Marganiec - adds Pawło, her husband An older couple welcomes us in their modest house situated just off the road.

We come here with the Polish Humanitarian Action, from which the Korogodzcy receive material support 83-year-old Marija says that before the war they had a good, normal life here.

Now the worst is the tumult of war that reaches their town There is no day without fear.

- Day and night these sounds, and we are sick I have heart problems, blood pressure, my head is spinning.

Every night when we go to sleep, we hear "boom!", "boom!" It all affects our hearts.

It's hard, he says Marija prays every day for the end of the war, for Ukraine to be as it used to be.

"I wish it was just a well-supplied country, a decent country," he says The woman comes from Russia, from Krasnoyarsk, but today she has nothing to do with her place of birth.

Only that her mother was buried there - I've lived here for 50 years, so who am I? Of course she's Ukrainian.

I live like other Ukrainians I am happy and sad at the same times as the rest of Ukrainians.

I can't judge Russia as a whole, but the fact that they started a war .

It's very bad, but there are different people there too.

Some support the war and some don't, he says The Korogods take out a photo album.

They show photographs of children and grandchildren The children left Ukraine some time ago.

On the one hand, it's good, they say, but on the other, it's bad that the parents were left alone Now only neighbors can help.

The neighbors are good, says Marija, and the community is close-knit People meet, talk about their joys and pains.

Mostly about the bad today Everyone helps each other, buys when you need something from the store or pharmacy.

Marija says she is happy with her life - We have children, grandchildren, we left something behind.

For parents, that's reason enough to rejoice "Now it's hard for all people and we're just waiting for the war to end.

" Myrowe Daniel Drob/Gazeta pl Among the photos shown by the hosts of the house, there is a photograph of a young man in uniform.

This is Paweł Korogodzki He served in the Navy for four years.

Pavlo suddenly starts to remember the German attack on the Soviet Union - When the Germans came, the Italians I was four years old.

I've seen everything, I've seen air battles, bombs exploding We didn't understand anything back then, we just hid.

Tomakivka was liberated on February 6, we were in the trenches for a month It's hard to tell it all, you have to see it.

One of the bombs hit the house, tore an 8-year-old girl apart We've seen it all," he says, and then suddenly mentions today's war: "Inexplicable, terrible.

Hard to understand It's just pain, tears and regret.

--- Polish Humanitarian Action has been supporting the people of Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict The activities of the Polish Humanitarian Organization in Ukraine are possible thanks to the solidarity of ordinary people, companies and institutions such as EU Humanitarian Aid.

Financial support to an organization can be provided through its website.