Life between bullets: Refugees from Kherson region settled in Osovets` and Shchasnivka

  Before the war, the Malinetski family lived in the village of Novooleksandrivka, 25 kilometers from the administrative border with Dnipropetrovsk region. The head of the family, 42-year-old Viktor, fished at the Kakhovka Reservoir and worked as a mechanic for a farmer. His wife Maryna looked after the children (born in 2008, 2012, and 2013), worked in a garden team at a small-sized local agricultural company, earned money as a seamstress, and studied to become a cook.- When the war approached our village, we decided to flee to Cherkasy region, where my childhood friend lives, - said the mother of many children.

-Wecouldn't live peacefully, watching our girls Marharyta and Antonina convulse fromexplosions. Stanislav, the eldest son, took the fear a little calmer, he also calmed downhis sister. Our relatives Karnaukhovs changed our plans to leave, they had alreadyleft our village and gone as far as to Chernihiv region - in Shchasnivka to AuntValia, the mother-in-law of my husband`s sister Nataliia. Then they rang us up and advised us to go to them. Aunt Valia is not local, but has lived in Shchasnivka for a long time, her husband Vasyl brought her here, changing a big city for his nativevillage.The story was interrupted by the antics of the girls, who deftly climbed an old, half-rotten willow tree. The mother scolded them and ordered the eldest son to help the younger sister Antonina to get down from the emergency tree. The elder Margaryta herself had already jumped to the ground.-Sometimes I scold them for overly active mischief, but I am also joyful thatthey quickly recovered, got rid of the fear of explosions and the dangerous movehere, - the refugee continued. -        Friendly local people helped our children, and us with my husband, to settledown quickly in a new place. In the first days, Halia Dubok and Aunt Valentyna housed us, then the village head Alla Kostiuk with her activists helped us move into a house where no one has lived for a long time, in the village of Osovets`, Shchasnivka community. It was advised to Alla Oleksandrivna by her kind-hearted aunt Nadia, who first helped us with household items.That house once belonged to the abbot of the church in Nova Basan`, Father Fedir, who died prematurely. His only nephew can claim the inheritance, but helives outside Ukraine and does not make any claims. Therefore, refugees from Kherson region can have permanent housing here. But a lot of work has to be doneto put the house and yard in order.Not even all the bushes have been cut down yet, but three rooms in the house have been tidied up, and one more needs overhauling. The Malinetskis also brought Maryna's mother, disabled pensioner Olena Mykolayivna, who needs aseparate room, to Osovets`.-I think we will cope with everything, because we lived in our native villagein a private house, had our own farm, - the mother of many children does not loseheart. -Good people help, we have good neighbors Ivan Opanasovych, Pavlo Dmytrovych and his wife Antonina.From the first days upon our arrival, my husband got a job at the agricultura lassociation "Zemlya i Volya", he works as a machine operator. What struck me the most was that even during the war, this company regularly pays a good salary, and all the employees have a hot lunch for as little as two hryvnias! Those engaged infield work have three meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner). It is already "more expensive" - ​​for five hryvnias! I have not heard anything like this anywhere in Kherson region.We managed to meet the machine operator Viktor Malinetskyi at the tractors tand of the Ozeriany branch of LLC "Zemlya i Volya", he was preparing to go to the field to spray herbicides. He works on a small tractor, but he also looks at the green "John Deere", which he saw once from afar in his village, and here there are more than a hundred such "Americans". He hopes that one day he too will be entrusted with such powerful equipment.Viktor also told about how he traveled hundreds of kilometers on his old“Zhiguli”, drove through numerous Ukrainian and occupiers` checkpoints with his big family. Only those refugees, who were traveling in their own transport, were allowed through. No one nitpicked Viktor, because he was traveling with three children. It took them 24 hours to get from the native village to Shchasnivka. The first joy shone when the head of the family learnt that it was possible to get apermanent job, yet with a stable salary, which at home he could only dream of.And soon they were offered housing. The family does not even think about returning.My sister Natasha with her husband Oleksandr and two children, I heard from them, also plan to settle here, - Viktor shares. - Oleksandr, like me, also has astable job in the company "Zemlya i Volya", he works on a tractor-loader. His wife Nataliia was invited to work in a store. They have already found a decent house in Osovka, the owner of which has decided to move to Bobrovytsia to live with his daughter, because he is already elderly and with every year it is more and more difficult to run a household. If our relatives buy this house, it will be better for usto have relatives nearby.The Malinetski refugees asked about a school their children could go to.They chose Ozeriany secondary school, to which pupil from Osovets` and Shchasnivka are taken by a school bus that drives past their new home. All three children managed to fall in love with a foreign village, got to know local pupils, asked them about the school, and agreed to continue their school studies there.With fear and many doubts the parents and children fled the war to strangers,but ended up as if they were old friends. Because both Kherson region and Chernihiv region are native land inhabited by native, sincere Ukrainians. Hryhorii OSOVSKYIRefugees. Author's photo