Kyiv, Ukraine. Halyna Popriadukhina, 65, has fled her home three times as Russian troops advanced deeper into eastern Ukraine and says she fears there is nowhere left to escape as the war approaches its fifth year.
Repeated displacement and family uncertainty
Popriadukhina said she is exhausted and worries she may never see her home or loved ones again. She said one of her sons is missing in action and the other is likely held by Russian forces.
She is among nearly 4 million people displaced within Ukraine, in addition to more than 5 million who fled to Europe, as the war grinds into its fifth year next week.
Donbas at the center of peace talks
Control of Donbas, comprising Ukraine’s industrialised eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, remains central to U.S.-backed peace talks aimed at ending the conflict, Europe’s biggest war since World War Two.
Russia is demanding that Kyiv cede the remaining 20% of Donetsk that it has been unable to conquer, a condition Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has refused. Zelenskiy said U.S. mediators had advised him behind closed doors that ceding the territory would be enough to secure peace.
“We can’t just withdraw,” Zelenskiy said this week. “We have to understand that Donbas is a part of our independence … It’s not about the land. It’s not only about territories: it’s about people.”
Leaving home and losses since 2022
Popriadukhina said she was milking cows with a friend when missiles began flying on Feb. 24, 2022, as the Russian invasion began. She said she reluctantly agreed to flee at her son’s urging, leaving behind her home and livestock that had been critical to her survival.
“I tried to make it so that I had everything (in life),” said Popriadukhina, a former collective farmworker. “I didn’t take anything from there. Everything was lost.”
After several months in western Ukraine, she returned to the Donetsk region in the summer of 2022, but left again last March as Russian forces pressed forward. She moved again when they advanced further westward into the Dnipropetrovsk region.
How do you think the ongoing fighting in Donbas is shaping the choices of people displaced within Ukraine?
