If it is too cold in the garage, Vadim sleeps in his old car. He lived on the third floor of an apartment block by Borodianka’s central street but it was destroyed by Russian grad missiles in March and there is barely anything here for him now, beyond the section of basement he could call his own. Every day he spends hours inside it sifting through the rubble, picking out fragments of his family’s belongings. It keeps him busy, he says.
The walk out of town to his garage is long and dispiriting but Vadim has few options. He does not want to live in the temporary accommodation for refugees, where conditions are variable. This is his home but, like the others who have stayed, he faces a quandary that may quickly become unbearable. If the warmer months were uncomfortable but broadly tolerable, the imminent winter will bring challenges that pose another real threat to life.
