Kharkiv: Like thousands of senior citizens Ukraine, Zinada gerenco It was spending years of sunset of his life in a shelter, its retirement from Russia’s invasion.
His memory was tarnished, but the moment Russia killed his village in the north -east of the country, the crystal was clear.
Born in 1939, Gerenko told AFP, “It was very loud. Everyone fell on the ground. I was lying there. Then I opened my eyes again, and I thought: I am still alive,” Greno, born in 1939, told AFP.
The invasion launched by Kremlin more than three years ago has unevenly affected Ukraine’s seniors.
According to the United Nations, a quarter of Ukraine people are over 60 years of age, but they calculated about half of the front civic deaths last year.
Elders are often final for the frontline regions to leave, saying that they lack money or strength to participate with their homes.
Gyrenko lived in Zaoskillya village in Eastern Kharkiv region till last May. Russia is pushing the nearby city in the west, which is raining bombs on nearby settlements.
She now lives in a dormitory-shelter for senior citizens named Velka Rodina in Kharkiv City, which means further North in Big Family, Kharkiv City.
Gyrenko was grateful to his carers that he calls “second-hand” inhabitants. She said that she can no longer remember her age: “I am from 39. You do mathematics.”
He said that he had worked in the rail industry throughout his life.
“I have loved the railway very much, very, since I was a child,” he said, his blue eyes well with tears.
Reputation in retirement
Shelter founder Olga Clateman said the needs of elderly people were immense.
In Kharkiv alone, he estimated that 32,000 seniors who had fled from their homes needed help.
There are only eight public retirement houses in the Kharkiv region, not enough to meet the demand, he said.
Authorities have not provided financial assistance to their establishment, in which 60 residents were in late March and only depend on private donations, he said.
“He has worked throughout his life, and he deserves a decent old age.”
“This is about our dignity.”
An architect by profession, Clateman told AFP that he plans to expand.
Since most of the senior rural areas come from, she wants to create a large botanical garden with animals, which is to reproduce the village “smell and sounds”.
One of the residents, 50 -year -old Sergi Yukovski, whose two legs were dissected after an accident, lived in rural areas with their younger brother.
His brother was killed from a mine during “bringing wood” near Khan’s village, which was also in the Kharkiv region.
“I don’t even know where he is buried,” said Yukovsky. For a year, he remained alone before going to Kharkiv city.
The future is foggy, he confessed, but said: “Ukraine will have all this, and Putin is a donkey.”
Hope for future
In another room, 84 -year -old Yuri Mygki was facing a window on the bed.
He was from Saltiva, a Kharkiv was a suburb, when the Russian army was trying to catch the city at the beginning of the attack.
“Is Ukraine divided?” Mygki asked, confused – like so many other people – the turns and turns of conflict.
Since September 2024, Gerenco has been sharing a room with 71 -year -old Olga Zolotareva, which lost the thread of his roommate conversation.
For 28 years, Zolotareva took care of people with learning disability in the city of Lipti, not away from the Russian border.
When the attack started, they were evacuated, but Zolotareva stopped.
In May 2024, when Russia launched a new aggressive launch on the Kharakiv region, she was in her home when the strike took place “.
I don’t know from a shark “” “broke her right leg, she said, showing her mark.
Along with peace, she expects to be able to run again normally.
He, Zolotareva said, and around it is “smell of a man”. She misses it a lot, she told AFP.
Gyrenko said that she was optimistic despite everything.
“Happiness, as I understand, it does not mean hungry, not to be without clothes and not to be done,” he said.
“I am not those things.”
