It's hard to find a more tranquil place than this hamlet on the edge of northern Ukraine. A collection of huts sprinkled along a barely there road, it abuts the Zheveda and Tsata rivers.
In winter, when the Tsata freezes, the town's 70 or so residents, many of them old with long memories, punch holes in the riverbed and fish amid a hushed birch forest draped in snow.
"Oh, I just started two weeks ago. I'm a beginner, but I have no luck. The fish aren't coming," said Vladimir, a grizzled but affable man in his late 50s who preferred not to give his last name. He adjusted his ushanka, or ear-flap hat, squatted down and gingerly dipped his line for another attempt.
