After surviving World War II and the fall of the Soviet Union, among other historical events, Zinaida Makishaiva must thank her chickens for having passed their most recent test: the brief, but brutal, occupation of her people by Russian troops.
The 82-year-old woman did not flinch too much when Russian tanks first appeared in early March in Borodianka, northwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. But then the Grad missiles crashed into his house, destroying his chicken coop.
A neighbor from the house next door was killed by the bombing. And then the Russian troops began to visit her every day.
His daily routines, established since his childhood when he started working in the fields, were soon interrupted by the bombing.
“I felt dead, numb. (...) I didn't have time to bring logs because of the bombings, small and large. This is how they destroyed all those houses. (...) What I know is: a missile, and without a house,” said Makishaiva, who spent much of his life in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, on the Black Sea.
“The doors blew up. I took the chickens because I needed something to eat. I had nothing to eat except potatoes, that's all. There is no water, no gas, nothing,” he described.
Russian troops arrived in three waves, he said, the first being the most violent. One day several soldiers entered his house and demanded that he stay in the basement.
“'Get in the basement, old p...! ' (said Russian troops). I said, 'Kill me, but I won't go, '” Makishaiva narrated.
Eggs
During the days of occupation, Makishaiva braved the crossfire to fetch water from a nearby well.
When food was scarce, he still had the eggs laid by his own chickens. His family was far away, as his only son and his three grandchildren live in different parts of the country.
Since Borodyanka was taken up by Ukrainian forces more than a week ago, Makishaiva, who loved to waltz when she was younger, walks more than three hours a day, between destroyed buildings and destroyed Russian tanks, to collect any food aid available at the community center or village church.
Thirty days of sleepless nights are now a thing of the past, with the help of valerian herb.
“Now everything is calmer, we have a radio again. For a month there was nothing, I felt deaf, without conversations, except with my dogs and my cat,” she said.
“Now, when the radio says it's midnight, I drink some valerian and sleep soundly until 5. Dreams are better now, happier. Because it used to be so bad, a lot of people died. It was terrifying,” he continued.
He added: “Whatever God decides will happen. I've been through two wars and now this. I pray that this has happened and the fighting will not return.”
(By Zohra Bensemra in photos and Joseph Campbell in text - Reuters)
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