I helped to evacuate people from dangerous territories before joining the army. People tell stories. Even their documents tell stories. Many of their stories are similar to this one. (Photos from Ukrainian passport; personal info blurred.)

This woman was born in Yurchenkove village, Vovchansk region, in January of 1941. Half a year before Germany started the offense on USSR and ten months before the region was occupied by nazis. She is 83 now.

The info in her Ukrainian passport records the personal info known since the date the passport was issued (90th): Married since 1978.

Only one registered address since 1981, in the same Yurchenkove village where she was born.

Today, the NGO that evacuated her (I worked with them before joining the army, and I am still in a group that gathers reports; the documents are from there) registered the same address as the starting point of the evacuation.

I saw that a lot.

People who lived all their lives in the same village, same home. Now forced to leave it—and never knowing whether they’ll see it again. (Or maybe it is already destroyed; don’t want to bother the NGO people asking for a full story.)

By the way, “the same address throughout life” doesn’t mean it is some remote village they couldn’t leave and never left. Yurchenkove is 10km from Vovchansk and 50km from Kharkiv; those villages frequently have cable TV, internet/mobile access, and transportation.

In the past, people from war-torn villages I met came from many different backgrounds and life stories. They have only one thing in common: Russia ruined their lives. Saying it is “historically Russian region” they are liberating.

The NGO is Volonter-68. They work tirelessly on evacuations and further support of those who were brought to safety. Support them!