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Seventy small rectangular white houses have been set up on the outskirts of Stryiskyi Park in Lviv, although they look like boxes with windows, but only from the outside. There are two windows, a door, a heater, along the plastic walls there are bunk beds. Two or four people live in such houses. Some people feel good here because it’s quiet, and some feel bad because they want to go home.
At home, near Kramatorsk, I took care of roses...
Liuda smokes near the entrance to one of the three sectors. The houses are located not in rows, but on the perimeter of a small area. The first sector is right next to the restaurant of one of the deputies of the Lviv City Council, a colleague of a businessman Hryhoriy Kozlovskyi. They seemed to be parked here for a while, to leave soon. Actually, that’s what Liuda would like to do.
She looks a little over thirty, has big blue eyes full of tears. I do not dare to speak at once. And she’s not willing to talk, she says that she is pretty annoyed by various «visitors», including journalists.
I’m trying to joke that the modul town, set up on Pulyuya Street, will soon be inhabited, then maybe some of these visitors will go there and give her peace. She smiles sadly.
Liuda managed to leave the Donetsk region, from the village in the Kramatorsk district, when there was not much shooting. She escaped with her four-year-old son and mother. Now, she says, their village is being bombed.
The woman settled in one of the houses on April 9, before that they lived in one of the buildings of the Lviv Polytechnic University nearby. She says that they decided to stay in Lviv suddenly. Before that, they were planning to go to the Czech Republic, but did not dare because of the fear that they would not be able to return. The woman admits that she wants to go home.
There, she worked in the «Zelenbud», caring for roses growing in flowerbeds in her city.
«We are taking care of roses, poisoning pests, weeding, cleaning flowerbeds. We bleach trees before Easter. And there is no work here. Volunteers say that this is a problem even for their own people,» – the woman complains.
She speaks Ukrainian, but asks if she can speak Russian, because it’s more convenient. I do not object.
In one of the sectors there is a dining room. You can eat there twice a day. The cooks usually prepare porridge of rice or buckwheat, and give sausage to it.
«Several people were poisoned. The child vomited for three days, everyone was sick. Ambulance, hospital… So now, no one eats that sausage. They feed at 2 pm, if it remains, then in the evening. We cook breakfast ourselves,» – she says. – «We would like a multicooker here. They promised to deliver it in the dining room. «
But the fact is that it’s not allowed to turn on such devices in the houses: kettles, water heaters.
«If they see it – point to the exit. We go to the dining room for boiling water three or four times, the woman says. Three refrigerators were recently installed in the dining room. We are afraid to keep food there, because we have people who can take it.»
Liuda hopes to return home soon to take care of the flowers in her city again. People will not spend the winter in the modular town, they are told that they will be housed here for only half a year.
«Your Ukrainian is also good,» – I say for farewell, encouragingly. She smiles sadly.
Zoya, Masha, Sasha, Hosha and Liuba from Mariupol
Meanwhile, the street became busier. People are slowly coming out of their apartments: someone to the toilet or shower, for a run through the yard, someone – to converse with a neighbor. Children run out of some houses and, playing, shout louder than the zealous birds that chirp loudly in the park.
A girl with two pigtails, Zoya, goes out on a scooter. She came from Kharkiv, she is five years old, very lively, lives in one of the houses with her mother, grandmother, aunt and cousin. She calls her mother somewhere, occasionally tugging at her arm or coat.
Zoya is quite worried when she hears sirens, warnings about the threat... And she is terribly frightened by the sounds of thunder, they remind her of Russian missiles falling on her city.
«We are very well here. Look, there is a sink, shower, toilet. There is a dining room, everything is well organized there, there are three refrigerators,» – says Liuba, Zoya’s grandmother. She managed to escape from Mariupol when the Russians tried to transport them to Rostov. The daughter, Zoya’s mother, says that it is a real miracle that they are here together now.
«I had no contact with them for a month, I didn’t know if they were alive for a month. It was unbearable,» – says Sasha.
She grew up in Mariupol, but moved to Kharkiv shortly before the war.
«They stayed in Mariupol, and it was very scary for them. I haven’t heard them in a month. They sat in the basement for a month. They miraculously escaped when Russians wanted to take them to Russia,» – the woman said.
Read also: Twelve days in a basement. The story of a Mariupol resident who managed to escape the city
Sasha says that the apartment which she and her husband rented in Kharkiv, has survived, but her mother’s house is ruined. Women plan to go abroad.
«My mother will be 79 this year, she worked all her life to have money for her old years, made repairs, borrowed some home appliance, and now it’s gone, the orcs have taken it away. We saw a photo: our house in Mariupol in through holes. My mother lived on Peace Avenue. Peace, imagine! It became a front line, there was a front line that divided the orcs and our army. The Russians were hitting those houses with direct fire! « – Sasha does not restrain her emotions.
The woman admits that she offered the carriers a lot of money to evacuate her mother and sister, but no one dared to go there. Then, she decided to do it herself, but fell ill. And when there was almost no hope that her family was alive, she learned that they had managed to escape from Mariupol, simply from the hands of Russians who wanted to take them to Russia.
«Volunteers said that they didn’t go closer than five neighborhoods to my mother’s address, it is difficult to walk there because snipers are working and shooting at their feet. And when there was little hope, when the city was completely closed for entry and exit, volunteers were abducted, they still managed to leave. The Russians were going to take them to Rostov, but they fled. Miracle, not otherwise! They sat in the basement for a month. I’m scared of those thoughts, now I know how to boil two cups of water in the basement, and if there is dry alcohol, five cubes are enough,» – Sasha says.
The woman remembers the way from Kharkiv to Lviv, which took five days.
«When we arrived in Lviv, we saw life here: people go for a run, walk with baby carriages. And we were sitting in the basement in Kharkiv and did not see the world at all, we had no light. My husband evacuated us and all the children and wives of his friends. Children, women and cats rode on the floor of the truck for five days. And those cruise missiles that hit Vinnytsia airport flew just over us. The road was very scary, we said goodbye to life,» – she added.
Read also: Native faces of unbreakable Kharkiv. Personal war stories from the outpost city
Sasha is a photographer, engaged in family photography. She is afraid to give Zoya to kindergarten. Sasha do not dare to let go of a daughter during the war. Sasha’s mother, Mrs. Liuba, is a teacher of arts, here she is also unlucky with her work...
«Mr. Volodymyr, the head of this town, came and asked where we came from, what specialties we have. He said that we are unsuitable, it would be better if we were carpenters and plumbers,» – the women joke.
Ms. Liuba is smiling, she is surprised by how they were met here. On Easter, father came with boxes of Easter cakes, and ordinary Lviv residents share what they can.
«It is deeply touching. The priest came and bought us Easter cakes. And yesterday, Mr. Volodymyr handed me a cheesecake, his wife baked it. Such people here! It is said that there is prejudice against Russian-speakers, but in the time that I have been here, I have never seen such a thing. I never met any aggression, no matter who I approached, no matter who I asked. Everyone answered, smiled, supported, showed, accompanied. A few days ago, a woman with two children came here, looked very modest, saw the children, and shared with them what she could,» – the woman said.
Ms. Liuba is happy with the new housing, assures that everything is good and beautiful here, although there is no internet, but, they say, will be held soon, and they promise to put a TV in the dining room.
«We are not watching the news right now. Won’t you say what’s there?» – She asks me. I don’t have time to focus on what to say, and she adds: «I was told yesterday that peace has come there now.»
Sasha says that acquaintances who left Mariupol earlier ask if it is true that there is peace there now, some children went to school. The Russians are spreading such news.
Read also: «These wounds are too deep.» how occupiers came to a village near Mariupol
«Our friends are throwing Russian news to us that the 53rd school where my husband studied has opened. This cannot be true. We left the city unwashed, spent a month in the basement, and now – the school opens, the whole yard is clean, the jackets are clean, everything is beautiful, then, probably, there were some mass actors. They turn on that Russian anthem, it’s just a brainstorm, it’s not real, it can’t be that way,» – the woman wonders. And she says that most of her close acquaintances still got out of Mariupol. But there are people who have turned to the Russians.
«In Kharkiv, people are hiding in basements, the closest acquaintances have left Mariupol. But I know some... there are those who are trying to adapt, because somehow you have to live. I have no idea how you can live under that flag, I could not. I don’t know what the reasons may be... After what they have done,» – Sasha lowers his eyes.
By Victoria Savitska, translated by Kateryna Bortniak
Photo by Ivan Stanistlavskyi / Tvoe misto
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Lviv Now is an English-language website for Lviv, Ukraine’s «tech-friendly cultural hub.» It is produced by Tvoe Misto («Your City») media-hub, which also hosts regular problem-solving public forums to benefit the city and its people.
