KHARKIV: Zinaida Gyrenko, like dozens of other senior citizens in Ukraine, was residing in a house until the Russian invasion of her country ended her years of life.
Although her recollection was cloudy, the second Russia struck her settlement in the north of the nation and sent her sprawling was crystal clear.
” It was so quiet. All slammed to the ground. I was lying it. Therefore I reopened my eyes and realized I was still alive,” Gyrenko, who was born in 1939, told AFP.
The senior citizens of Ukraine have disproportionately been affected by the Kremlin’s war launched more than three years ago.
Almost half of civilian fatalities near the top last year were caused by older people, but only a third of Ukraine’s population is older than 60, according to the United Nations.
The elder are frequently the last to leave front-line areas because they don’t have the resources to travel, or because they don’t have the desire to leave their homes.
Up until last May, Gyrenko resided in the town of Zaoskillya in the northeast Kharkiv place. Farther north, Russia has been making advances and has poured bombs down on local towns like Kupiansk and Kupiansk, as well.
She currently spends her time in Kharkiv City, a top citizen dormitory known as Velyka Rodina, or Big Family.
Gyrenko thanked her caregivers for taking care of the” second-hand” people. She claimed that she was unable to identify her years because she was 39. You perform the math.
She claimed to have spent her entire life working in the road business.
She said,” I’ve loved the railroads very, very much, since I was a child,” her blue eyes brimming with tears.
In retirement, integrity is paramount.
Olga Kleytman, the creator of the shelter, stated that the needs of older people were pressing.
She estimated that 32, 000 elders who had fled their homes in Kharkiv needed assistance.
Not enough to meet the demand, she said, there are only eight people retirement homes in the Kharkiv place.
She continued, adding that the regulators have never provided financial support for her establishment, which had 60 people at the end of March and was entirely dependent on private donations.
They have lived their entire life, and the 56-year-old claimed that they deserve a respectable old age.
” Our dignity is at stake here.”
Kleytman, an engineer by vocation, disclosed to AFP that she had plans to grow.
She wants to grow a huge vegetable garden with wildlife to breed town” smells and sounds” because the majority of the elders are from rural areas.
Sergiy Yukovsky, 50, who had both limbs amputated at work, used to reside in the land with his younger sibling.
His brother was killed by a plant in the Kharkiv region of the town of Kochubeivka when he was “fetching lumber.”
Yukovsky said,” I don’t even realize where he is buried.” Before being moved to Kharkiv capital, he for a time lived alone.
He admitted that the future is bleak, but he added that” Putin is an idiot and Ukraine will have it all.”
Hopes for the future
84-year-old Yuri Myagky lay in a base facing a window in another area.
He was from Saltivka, a suburb of Kharkiv that was heavily bombed when Russian troops attempted to seize the area at the start of the war.
Has Ukraine ever been divided? Myagky was perplexed by the twists and turns of the fight, just like so many others.
Olga Zolotareva, 71, grumbled when her companion lost the thread of their conversation, and Gyrenko has been sharing a chamber with her since September 2024.
In the area of Lyptsi, not far from the Belarusian border, for 28 years, Zolotareva provided care for people with learning disabilities.
They were evacuated when the war began, but Zolotareva remained.
She was in her home at the time” there was a attack” in May 2024 when Russia launched a new offensive against the Kharkiv area.
She claimed a stone from” I don’t know what” caused a scar to appear on her right foot.
She hopes to be able to move generally once more in addition to peace.
That, according to Zolotareva, and the presence of” the smell of a man” around her. She told AFP that she misses it a bit.
Despite all, Gyrenko maintained her optimism.
” Happiness, as I understand it, means never being without clothes, not being shoeless, and not being thirsty,” she said.
” I’m not those stuff,” I said.
