Civilians try to pick up daily life in Ukraine's East

Not a single house in the village survived, and a year and a half after the liberation, there is still no electricity, but 39 families have returned to live in Kamianka in the Kharkiv Oblast.

Before the full-scale war, more than a thousand people lived in this village near Izium, but almost all of them left in 2022, when there were battles for Kamianka and it fell under occupation, says the village’s council leader Yevhenii Panasenko.

“These (roofs) mean that people have been here and wish to return someday. The owners are not too far away. If there were light or some utility available, they would return to live here,” said Yevhenii Panasenko, acting head of Kamianka village council.

Oleksandr Hordiienko and Zhuzha returned to Kamianka in February 2023. A year earlier, this village in Izium was on the front line. Oleksandr shows us that there are inhabitable houses here. His house was also destroyed.

Oleksandr and his wife rebuilt the house in a year and a half. They remember doing everything themselves. Foundations and volunteers assisted with funds and materials, and the second floor was renovated thanks to this support.

“The roof is covered here, and here it is covered. There is nothing in the house yet; we are going to install heating. And the windows have been installed,” said Oleksandr.

Immediately after the liberation, only about a dozen people lived in Kamianka, and now 39 families live there, says the village head Yevhenii Panasenko, which is still 14 times fewer than before the full-scale invasion.

According to him, there are still only a few dozen houses in the village that have been restored like the Hordiienko’s. But there are houses with the potential for habitation.

Panasenko says that the biggest obstacle is the minefield, which need to be cleared by combat engineers.

Once the mines under the power lines are removed, engineers can repair the infrastructure and the village will have power for the first time in two years.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine’s southeast, a local church community celebrates its first feast after the reconstruction of the St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church in Zaporizhzhia.

A Russian missile strike damaged the building in August last year.

The parishioners are now raising funds to repair the bell tower, which was damaged by the blast.