Ukraine War

Maryinka, eastern Ukraine, Nov. 2017.

Nikolay Yakovlevych, 81.

Standing in what used to be the front room of his house, describes the time it was hit by an artillery shell in 2014, fired from Russia-led forces positions.

Despite being covered in debris both him and his wife, who is 82, escaped serious physical injury. Although due to the trauma they now both suffer from stress and severe high blood pressure, consequently they desperately require much-needed medicine but have little money and receive no support for this.

Having nowhere else to go they have lived in their small ‘summer kitchen’, approximately 2.5m square, since the shelling, as the house they have lived in for 50 years is uninhabitable.

Materials donated for rebuilding it remain stacked in their front yard but there is no-one to do the work.