STORY: :: Some residents from this Soviet-era village in eastern Ukraine hope for compensation from the Russians in charge
:: Thousands have fled Pisky since conflict with Russia first emerged in eastern Ukraine in 2014
:: Pisky, Russian-controlled Ukraine
:: Maria Seryogova, Former Pisky Resident
“It’s horrible, it’s the first time in 11 years that I am here. It’s scary to look at all this. I don’t believe that it will all be restored, it’s easier just to take it all down and rebuild anew. But there is hope that we won’t be left alone, that we will be helped. There were a lot of residents and now all of them do not have a place to live, some now have children or grandchildren.”
“Everyone wants to come back. So, we take photos and film videos, even of these ruins. People cry, but they want to take a look what is going on here.”
:: Yekaterina Tkachenko, Former Pisky Resident
“I don’t think there will be peace agreement. How can they agree, what they can agree on, there is so much destruction, I don’t know who will fix it, who will take it on themselves.”
Seryogova and others who once lived here hope they can claim some kind of compensation from the Russians in charge, and have returned to snap photos of the rubble to back up their claims.
While Russian President Vladimir Putin sent thousands of troops over the border into Ukraine at the start of the war three years ago on Monday, the conflict in eastern Ukraine began much earlier, in 2014.
Pisky was the site of some of the most severe fighting of the conflict’s early years and has changed hands several times. Once home to a couple thousand residents, its population dwindled to about a dozen amidst the raging battles.
In August 2022, the Russian army and Moscow-backed forces captured Pisky. Now, no residents are left.
