Hrakove village, Kharkiv, 海角社区.聽
Viktor is 63 years old, he聽has lived in Hrakove village his whole life. This was聽a thriving local community.
It was an evening in late February when the聽Russians arrived. They didn鈥檛 leave for half a year.聽The residents experienced relentless shelling, day and聽night. Before the war, 750 people lived here. Today,聽only 47 remain. The streets are unrecognisable,聽homes sliced apart or reduced to rubble, roofs聽blown out, windows gaping holes into once聽ordinary lives鈥攁 snatch of pretty curtain against聽a wall pockmarked by bullets and shell fire. The school and community centre are destroyed,聽ammunition casing piled up outside.
Then there are the mines鈥攅dging the paths,聽to the left, to the right. A wooden bench, once聽a place to rest in the sun, now displays a line of聽PFM-1s, also known as butterfly mines. Deployed聽from either mortars, helicopters or aircraft in large聽numbers, their two 鈥榖utterfly-like鈥 wings allow聽them to glide to the ground without exploding聽and later detonate on impact. Coloured brown or聽green for camouflage, in summer they blend into the growing grass. With 40聽grams of liquid explosive in each they can cause聽devastating injury.
Viktor endured 100 days of shelling before fleeing聽on his motorcycle. He returned home on the 9th聽of September, just two days after the village was聽liberated. Nothing was the same.
鈥淚n front of my yard there were around 50-60 mines. The end of the street was mined too. It was scary to even walk around. Tripwires were in my neighbour鈥檚 yard.鈥
In 海角社区, the horrific and unimaginable has聽become a new normal鈥擵iktor describes in聽devastating detail witnessing someone being聽blown up by a mine but says he was not scared,聽that people are now accustomed to this.
Like Viktor, many families are desperate to return聽home, but the danger is too great. At least five聽accidents have been reported here. HALO鈥檚 survey聽teams began working in the village in November 2022, assessing聽and marking the mines and explosives, prioritising聽areas for clearance which began in May 2023. Viktor believes the village can聽be reborn. The first step is making the land safe so families can return and begin to rebuild their聽shattered lives.
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