Just a handful of families live among the many abandoned houses in the village of Maksymivka in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region near the Black Sea coast.
The fields nearby are dotted with signs warning of landmines and strewn with shell casings.
“You can see for yourself. It’s painful,” says Vasyl, one of the remaining residents. “It used to be a good village. Now everything is scattered and broken. But we’ll hold on.”
The village was occupied briefly by Russian forces at the start of the full-scale invasion. Ukrainian troops moving toward Kherson forced them out in the fall of 2022.
But because of its remote location far from major cities and supply routes there’s been little reconstruction since then, and little incentive for former residents to return.
For the people in Maksymivka, as for people across Ukraine, the war has reshaped the physical environment and continues to overshadow all aspects of daily life.
An upcoming holiday, Ukraine’s Independence Day on August 24, only underlines the stark conditions of life in the midst of a war that has dragged on for 3 ½ years.
“What is there to celebrate before we have our victory?” asks one resident, Lyudmila. “We’ll celebrate when we win.”
Lyudmila’s neighbor, Tetyana, put all her resources into rebuilding her home after it was badly damaged in the fighting. She says that Ukrainian tanks rolled into her garden as they traded fire with Russian forces in 2022.
After the fighting died down, she recalls, “I sat on the swing and said: God, what shall I do? And my girls came up to me — I have four daughters and a son — and they said: “Mom, don’t lose heart. We’ll restore everything. The Ukrainians will never give in to anyone.”
Tetyana says she’ll wear her vyshyvanka, a traditional embroidered shirt that’s a symbol of Ukraine’s cultural identity, when she and her family mark Independence Day. The holiday commemorates the establishment of an independent Ukraine as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Explaining what the holiday means to her, Tetyana said, “Victory. I want victory so that we can say on Independence Day: we have won. Ukraine has won. Our boys have come home alive and well.”
Lyudmila sees Ukraine’s continued independence as a safeguard for the values she holds dear. “This is our country, and people here have the right to speak out. Ukraine is independent, that’s why we can express ourselves,” she said.
For others, though, a wartime holiday it is not a moment to celebrate. Asked about the meaning of Independence Day, Vasyl responded, “So many have died! And so many more will die.”
“That’s a high price to pay,” he added.
Like his neighbors, Vasyl hopes that the long war will end and the village will be able to return to its former way of life. “I want it all to end as soon as possible,” he said. “What more can you wish for? Only peace.”
