Maybe about war in Ukraine continue in the eastern and southern parts of the country with Russian troops trying to take over the entire territory Donbass and for the Ukrainians to plan a counterattack on KhersonHowever, the situation within the country is quite different. There the inhabitants try with the meager means they have, reestablish their homes and continue their lives, refusing to give up their property and ancestral lands.

The Associated Press is located at Novoselovka village 140 kilometers away from Kyiv, which came under massive attack during the first phase of the Russian invasion at the end of March last year, documenting the efforts of volunteers amid the ruins of the house of 66-year-old Maria Broom. A few meters from the site, the advance of Russian troops was stopped by a defensive perimeter created by Ukrainian troops. The woman’s house was subjected to heavy artillery and aviation fire, and a total of five bombs exploded in a neighboring field, only objects in the basement were saved.

Now teams of volunteers go there every morning and pick up from the rubble what can be reused. bricks, doors, frames of electrical devices are the raw material for reconstruction at home. “In other countries, if your house is destroyed, you can hang a “For Sale” sign and move to another place. It’s not like that here,” he explains. Andrew Galyuga, one of the volunteers. “People are very attached to their place and don’t want to leave,” he adds.

Similar initiatives were developed in many other areas around Kyiv. “I am so grateful to them. The people around me helped me so much,” she says for her part. Jeanne Dynaevaas she carries sandwiches and water for volunteers working in her own home a little further on. “I hope I can stay here, maybe in a makeshift house,” she notes, although she does not hide her anxiety about the difficult winter ahead. “I don’t know what will happen to us. Winter will come soon, and I’m worried,” the woman concludes.

Ukrainian authorities estimate that the country suffered $100 billion in infrastructure damage last month, equivalent to two-thirds of 2020 gross domestic product, and it is estimated that recovery efforts could cost at least seven times more.

Officials are urging Western countries to use Russian assets seized due to sanctions and donate money to help pay for reconstruction costs.

However, Russia is reacting sharply to any potential takeover of Russian assets by the United States, which would completely destroy Moscow’s bilateral relations with Washington, the head of the North American Directorate of the Russian Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

“We are warning the Americans of the devastating consequences of such actions, which will forever harm bilateral relations, which is not in their interests and not in our interests,” Alexander Dartsev told TASS.

(Source: AP, Photo: AP Photo/Eugene Maloletka)