On the outskirts of Kyiv, vegetation grows unchecked and the cats run wild.

Up till six months in the past — when the primary Russian troops landed at Antonov Airport round a kilometre and a half away — the brick buildings of Proskurivska Avenue in Hostomel evoked idyllic postcards of an orderly and peaceable world.

Now, solely bare constructions stay. Inside are piles of rubble. One thing rots, hidden beneath. 

The cats now not belong to anybody. They roam hungry and lonely, approaching anybody who involves ponder what’s left of the neighbourhood. 

One among them is Lyudmila Holovienko.

The 55-year-old’s condo in Proskurivska Avenue was burned down in late February, within the early days of the invasion.

Now, she wanders the abandoned avenue that had been her dwelling for 35 years. 

“We have not touched anybody, we’ve not taken something from anybody, we’ve not attacked anybody,” stated Lyudmila, referring to the lack of her home. “Do you see what the Russians did?”

The three-storey property that housed her condo, which dates from 1936, had endured Nazi occupation however did not survive the Russian invasion.

Hostomel was among the many first cities occupied in Kyiv’s suburbs, together with neighbouring Bucha and Irpin, the scenes of alleged civilian massacres.

Avenue-by-street battles broke out in Hostomel, forcing many residents to flee. People who stayed hid for days or even weeks in cellars with out heating, gasoline or electrical energy. 

Volunteers who tried to convey them meals and medicines got here underneath gunfire, stated Lyudmila, and the city’s mayor, Yuri Prylypko, was killed in early March. 

Lyudmila was not at dwelling when her property burned down, as a substitute dwelling along with her unwell, bedridden mom just a few kilometres away, a choice that will save her life.   

It was there that she heard the primary noises of the invasion.

“I assumed it was a gasoline tank from our neighbours,” she stated. “After which three hours later, every thing began: planes, smoke, taking pictures. It was simply such a horror.”

If shedding her dwelling wasn’t sufficient, in April, she misplaced her mom. She was 86. 

“She did not survive all of it, the chilly, the starvation,” Lyudmila stated. “So long as I stay, I am going to keep in mind all of it for the remainder of my life.”

Just some months earlier, Lyudmila had misplaced her daughter, who died from most cancers, aged 32 — on New Yr’s Eve.

In August, six months for the reason that battle started, Lyudmila is again at her late mom’s property, dishing up a meal of chilly salo, hen dishes and contemporary pickles. 

Subsequent to Lyudmila are her younger niece and daring 75-year-old aunt, who confronted Russian troopers once they knocked on her door in quest of males, meals, and weapons. 

The trio, together with Lyudmila’s uncle, sheltered of their home throughout the occupation.

The damaged roof and broken home windows left by the explosions have since been fastened, however the glass has been taped over within the form of an “x” as a precaution.

Now a quiet sense of normalcy has set in, however the wounds and painful reminiscences linger.

Lyudmila doesn’t know what’s going to occur with the reconstruction of Hostomel and the rubble inside her constructing stays untouched. 

With the worry of a robust winter forward, she should put together for what’s to come back.

“I am going to come again right here, I need to stay right here, I prefer it right here, every thing is native right here,” she stated of Proskurivska Avenue again in June, her voice trembling. 

“All of us simply received harm, all of us. Each household has grief, misfortune. It is simply terrible.”