Every morning, when Vira Chernukha wakes up amid the rubble of what is left of the Ukrainian village of Dementiivka after seven months of Russian occupation, the first thing she does is curse Vladimir Putin. Once a peaceful settlement of dozens of small houses, charming flower gardens and the sounds of children playing, the village now has only one remaining resident, Chernukha, 76, along with two stray puppies and a cat. The others either died in the shelling or moved to Russia, about 5 miles away.
“We had such a beautiful village you can’t even imagine,” she says in tears. “You could hear children’s voices everywhere. Beautiful! And now it’s a dead zone. No one’s here.”
