They leave and return several times: how does the front-line Orichiv live

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Orihiv is a town in Zaporozhye, which has not disappeared from the lists of the General Staff for a year and a half. Located just a few kilometers from the front line, it lives under incessant shelling, which began on February 24, 2022 and has not ended until now. Of the 14,000 people who lived here before the full-scale invasion began, only one and a half remained. One of them is Stanislav Frank, a simple hardworking man. During the recording of this interview for the special project “Hide Your Own” on “Ukrainian Pravda. Life” he came under another attack: several powerful explosions rang out. Stanislav, who was talking on the phone at that moment, pressed himself tightly to the ground and clenched his teeth. And even when the echo of the explosion passed, he was in no hurry to get up, because “they don’t come one by one.” We have been hiding for most of our lives. “Cassettes, rockets, cabs – we have everything flying. The other day, a cab flew in and killed a grandfather and two grandmothers, another man is seriously injured, he is in the hospital now. Holy people – they helped both animals and people. And such is the grief,” says Stanislav. Stanislav Frank, a resident of Orichovo Recently, it is precisely the guided aerial bombs weighing 500 and 1,500 kilograms, which cause enormous destruction, that have become a real terror for the locals. Not a single surviving building remained in Orichov, almost all residential buildings were damaged. More than a third cannot be repaired, they need to be built from scratch. In April of this year, the authorities announced that all children had been evacuated from Orihiv, although many families did not dare to leave for a long time. “Now, mostly people over 50 remain in the city. There are those who do not have savings to leave somewhere,” says the man. “Many are – ‘theoretically’, ‘in principle’ – ready to leave in order not to interfere with the military, but the question is – where? Where to find shelter? There is not enough housing for displaced people in Ukraine. People are afraid of being left to fend for themselves.” Many locals left, but then returned, some – several times. “People are afraid, miserable, but they return, because at least they have their own housing here. There are many of them. Although we have to hide most of our lives in Orichov,” the man adds. Read also: “In the middle of the city – a mountain of corpses of Russians, and all around children are chasing large ones.” Stories from the de-occupied Kharkiv region from a volunteer As soon as the daughter hears the siren, hysteria begins. Stanislav has a small daughter. Today, July 23, she turns 5. She celebrates her birthday in Zaporizhzhia. “Children are sacred. They must be protected at all costs. So we sent my daughter to Zaporizhzhia together with her grandparents, the parents of my wife. There, my relatives have an apartment in which they live. And we are here. My wife is with me every day in Orichov. Once a month we go to see the baby,” says Stanislav. Stanislav and his wife decided to take the baby out in October. “My parents live in a village near Orikhov. And we as a whole family – the three of us and my wife’s parents – went to them. At that time, there were a lot of “arrivals” in Zaporizhzhia, so we thought that the village would be safer. And a week later, the Orcs began to destroy this village. We barely had time to jump into the basement… As soon as it calmed down a little, we got into a car that had been damaged by shelling and drove to Zaporizhzhia,” the man recalls. . Unfortunately, the shelling did not pass without a trace for the girl – the child is now terrified of sirens: “As soon as she hears a siren, she immediately starts hysteria. The child is very afraid. Once I came to her house, they went out for a walk, the siren sounded – she suddenly grabbed my hand to hide. Then she experienced a lot of stress. Of course, I did not want her to hear such a thing. Not that she would live.” Read also: “It’s very scary, but we continue because people need us.” Front-line stories of critical infrastructure workers “300 shells per hour arrived” The city suffered a difficult fate. As the shelling began on February 24, it has not ended until now. “The fighting was 3-4 kilometers away from Orichov. Then there were moments when up to 300 different shells flew in an hour. It’s scary to remember those terrible times. Thanks to our boys for repelling them (the occupiers – ed.),” says Stanislav Frank. After the start of the full-scale war, the locals immediately rallied: in a day they collected more than 10 tons of supplies for the defenders. “People gathered and said: we don’t need orcs here. They dreamed that we would meet them with cows… And we had “cocktails (Molotov – ed.)” prepared for them in every yard. I opened my eyes (February 24 – ed.), I heard that there was a war, and I helped set up checkpoints, and defended critical-important ones at night, and went on duty in the rain and cold. From the first second, we resisted.” – recalls a resident of Orikhov. Stanislav believes that after the victory, people will return to Orichov, rally again and be able to rebuild the city. He says that people here are talented and hardworking. The town will definitely come alive. Now those who remained are forced to survive. There are constant problems with mobile communication here, sometimes you have to search for a signal for hours. There is no mobile Internet, gas and electricity – also, with water – interruptions. The townspeople put a generator on the well, so now they can at least pump water. At the same time, there are three grocery stores in the city. “They help us a lot with humanitarian products, bread. The stores mainly sell water, cigarettes, and energy drinks. From the delicacies – sausage and fish. What the humanitarian store doesn’t have, that’s what they sell,” says the man. At the beginning of July, the Russians bombed the “point of invincibility” in Orihiv, where people were receiving humanitarian aid. An aerial bomb then killed four women and injured more than ten people. Volunteer mission: rescuing abandoned dogs Stanislav is a welder by profession. He worked with his hands all his life. After the start of a full-scale war, together with his wife, he undertook a volunteer mission: feeding homeless dogs. “There are a lot of abandoned animals. And my wife and I have been feeding them for more than a year. We have to, because there is no one else. We need large shelters for them, but no one wants to do it. Most of them think that an animal is not a person; they say, why? And they are also alive, just like us, – shares Stanislav. – We are helped by charitable organizations, caring people will help us. And every day – as soon as there is 5-10 minutes of silence – we have to jump out and feed the animals until there is a possibility”. Stanislav and his wife feed the abandoned animals. They often do not have time to return to the shelter – the city is once again covered with fire: mortars, hail, hurricanes, etc. Somehow a projectile fell 5 meters from the car – it was cut into fragments. During the recording of the interview, Stanislav also fed the animals. Then the explosions rang out. “Just now, there’s a little boy lying next to me,” says Stanislav Frank, not getting up from the ground. “He’s been through so much. He hides, and when he hears a car, he comes out. Then I’ll go, and he’ll hide again. And we have hundreds of such animals in the town. And what about me? I’m on the road in the city, there’s nowhere to hide, only to lean on the ground. He sat down, chewed, and – on. Let’s not stop the good work.” During the recording of this interview, the man was feeding animals and came under fire. “I will say that I am ready to evacuate. And what’s next?” According to Stanislav, he could evacuate away from Zaporozhye together with his wife and daughter, but at the moment he is unable to provide his family with everything they need in another city. “If I say I’m ready to evacuate, a thousand volunteers will come. They’ll take me out any second. They’ll take me out and say: ‘We’ve made it, goodbye.’ And what’s next?” he asks, as if on behalf of many people who find themselves in a similar situation. Read also: “There is no money to leave”: how people live under shelling in Chasovoy Yar. VIDEO However, Ukrainians who find themselves in difficult life circumstances due to the war can receive help with housing. For this purpose, the volunteer project “Shelter” operates in Ukraine. On the website of the initiative, interested citizens can offer housing for displaced persons by posting a relevant ad. Therefore, IDPs can find temporary shelter in any region of Ukraine or abroad for a few days or longer. The filter system will help you easily choose the option that meets your criteria and quickly contact the owner. The site is available in 40 languages. “Shelter” is a volunteer initiative that already has state support. In particular, home owners who sheltered displaced persons receive compensation from the state for the payment of communal services. Roksana Kasumova, specially for “UP. Life”

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