Like this retiree, the inhabitants of the territories north of kyiv bearing the scars of the passage of the Russians believe in the promise of the government, which wishes to “restore the” damaged “real estate”.
But in Gorenka, a small town heavily pounded at the start of the invasion of the country, it is still time for this sixty-year-old whose husband was killed.
“I hope we will not be forgotten because we have done a lot to stop the progression towards the capital”, tearfully told AFP the pensioner all dressed in black, in the rubble where the soot still gives off a strong smell.
– Concrete mixing –
In the meantime, his large vegetable garden is promising: under the fruit trees decapitated by shrapnel, potatoes and raspberries grow rapidly in the ashes.
According to an official from Gorenka, Tetiana Chepeleva, 1,000 files have already been filled out by people in the home that has been made totally or partially unsanitary.
Thanks to the good weather, some have already started mixing the concrete by themselves, but the arms and “the materials are missing” in this town which had 10,000 inhabitants before the invasion.
The needs are immense and at the end of May, Prime Minister Denys Chmygal assessed the cost of the destruction at 561 billion euros across the country.
For the moment, in the municipalities north of kyiv, which have been accessible to the government since the spring, AFP has noted numerous clearings and mine clearance operations still in progress.
The electricity network is gradually being restored and work is taking place on a bridge.
A conference is due to take place on July 4 and 5 in Switzerland to mobilize international funds to accelerate the movement.
In Boutcha, where the bodies of civilians were discovered after the withdrawal of troops sent by the Kremlin, 600 families are looking for a roof and vacant seasonal rentals are being requisitioned.
Before the conflict, the city was pleasant and appreciated by holidaymakers for its calm and its soothing pine forests.
The first relocated are also settling in gray containers left in the car park of a large covered market which is nothing more than a heap of sheet metal.
Recently, the head of the Polish government Mateusz Morawiecki inaugurated the first camp for displaced people set up in Borodianka, not far from Gorenka.
Several of these temporary installations are currently being set up in places where the Russian military is accused of having committed abuses, in anticipation of the next winter to come.
“It is made available free of charge by the government and “there is room for 92 families”, explains the mayor of Boutcha Anatoli Fedorouk, 50, presenting small boxes of around twenty square meters that can each accommodate four people.
Thanks to the help of the Poles in cooperation with the Ukrainian government, it should receive three more prefabricated camps.
Oksana Polichchouk discovers these impeccably clean places, with disinfected toilets and large canteens with colored walls.
Beneficiary, she has the impression of being reborn when her food stand went up in smoke more than two months ago right next door and she miraculously survived in her half-collapsed building.
Signs, not yet hung on the walls, dictate the new rules of living together in the common areas: you have to stick together, stay happy and hope.
A beginning of appreciated comfort, before falling asleep under the impersonal covers of Unicef, in a sanitized universe of plastic.
But the 41-year-old trader does not see herself, with her six and nine-year-old children, staying in the region.
“I want to be compensated and rebuild my life elsewhere,” she says, referring to her current psychological treatment and her panic attacks.
“Ukrainians are not afraid of the construction site that awaits them,” she says, recovering herself before saying goodbye.
“Everything we had before, we will get it back. The only thing that matters is winning this war.”
