Ukraine, 80-year-old woman tells of confrontation with Russian forces

80-year-old Halyna Derevyanko was in her apartment when Russian forces attacked the town of Borodyanka, in the Kiev region.

But she did not know that she would stay in the apartment for the entire period that Russian forces controlled this territory in March.

“We were the only two people in the whole building when the Russian soldiers came. They destroyed everything in the basement. My son’s friend lost his life from the explosions,” Halyna Derevyanko, a resident of Borodyanka, told VOA.

As Russian soldiers tried to break down the building’s front door, Ms. Derevyanko remembered her neighbor’s advice: If Russian forces try to enter a building, you better let them, otherwise they might punish the residents for not helping them. So the 80-year-old decided to open the door herself.

“I told them: ‘Here I am, in front of you, a mother with gray hair. Do whatever you want with me,'” she tells the Voice of America.

Russian soldiers searched the entire building, and according to the 80-year-old, they took what they wanted.

After Ukrainian forces liberated the city, residents returned to Borodyanka. Valentina Myazova, another resident, tells VOA that she stayed in a village after leaving the city.

“We thought it would be safer there. But it was real hell. The Russians came to us one day and told us that they were looking for the Nazis and the Poles,” says Mrs. Valentina Myazova.

After the Russians left, Ms. Myazova found her hometown of Borodyanka almost completely destroyed and many of her friends dead.

“They shot my friend’s son to death and she buried him in the yard while the Russian forces bombarded,” she continued.

In this small town in the Kiev region, the signs of war are everywhere. Apart from the suffering and pain in their souls, the inhabitants have nothing else to show./Voa

top channel