UKRAINE, KHARKIV OBLAST, July 31 — Two people remain in Sotnytskyi Kozachok, a village on the border with Russia in the Kharkiv region. These are elderly women in their 90s and 70s, reported Viktor Kovalenko, head of the Zolochiv village military administration, in a comment to Gwara Media.

Towns and villages of the Kharkiv Oblast come under massive Russian artillery shelling and air strikes often, even more so since Russia launched a new ground offensive north and northeast of the region in the Vovchansk and Lyptsi directions in May.

“A 70-year-old woman recently suffered a stroke, but she refuses to leave the village. We have been working with her, guaranteeing safe conditions for evacuation and further accommodation, but with no results so far,” Kovalenko said.

Another woman who stayed in Sotnytskyi Kozachok had previously agreed to evacuate with her husband. They went to the Ukrainian military at the place of evacuation but said they decided to stay in the village. Then, they took the humanitarian aid and returned home.

“Later, when the Russian shelling became more frequent, the woman’s husband evacuated together with another man. They were already accommodated in a dormitory, in a safe place,” Kovalenko said.

Before the full-scale Russian invasion, 177 people lived in the village. Currently, evacuation is difficult because it is impossible to enter the village as the Russians destroyed all the bridges. People have to walk to the evacuation point, where volunteers or police pick them up.

Read more