In the eastern Ukrainian village of Bohorodychne – which means “where God was born” – the golden domes of the church have collapsed.
The church was blown up in one of the many bombings the village has seen, as it has been captured and recaptured several times by Russian and Ukrainian troops fighting for Donbass.
Ukrainian soldiers said the Russians had fled the village a few days earlier in the face of their army’s full-scale counteroffensive.
They left a ghost town.
Nina Gonchar and her son Mykola, who are standing in front of their destroyed house, appear to be the last two inhabitants of the village.
Some of their family members were murdered, they told the AFP news agency.
“The Russians came, they killed my brother and sister-in-law,” says 58-year-old Mykola.
Russian soldiers wanted to use his brother’s house as a base, but after he refused, they gunned down the house, killing the couple at the same time.
Mykola says he wrapped the bodies in blankets and buried them himself.
-‘Barely survived’ –
He and his frail 92-year-old mother “nearly survived” the cast thanks to jars of food, some poultry and some vegetables in the garden.
“How can I describe it in words? It was difficult, I was afraid,” says Mykola.
His mother, traumatized by the fighting, is still hiding in the shelter her son dug in her garden, even though the area is back in Ukrainian hands.
“I cry every day. You killed my son,” says Nina, wiping the tears from her eyes with a veil.
Artillery fire erupts in the background as she speaks.
But it’s one of the few sounds in the empty village.
“They took all my geese and even my mother’s bedding,” says Mykola.
“There were a lot of goats in the village…they ate them all too.”
– ‘What will be will be’ –
Many residents also moved to Russia when Russian troops marched into the village last spring.
In this Donetsk region, in the Donbass, many residents are pro-Moscow.
“They told us we could go to Russia, but I said no. Who would be waiting for us over there?” he says.
He also refused to go when Ukrainian soldiers asked him if he wanted to go to a slightly safer western Ukraine, citing health problems and his mother’s old age.
“I just thought: What will, will,” he explains.
As he walks over debris in his devastated garden, Mykola points to two grenades.
He says he took them from “drunk” Russian soldiers and waited to hand them over to the Ukrainian army along with other ammunition found.
Later that day, shells started falling again – this time closer to the village – and AFP saw Ukrainian troops run for cover.
After Ukraine launched a lightning counter-offensive to wrest more territory from Russia in recent days, Moscow said it had launched a new round of strikes in the Donetsk region.
Close to her ruined home, Nina Gonchar feels safest from the latest attacks when tucked deep within her lair.
She crouches next to a wood-burning stove surrounded by religious icons.
