Borodianka: home of memory and living people
“The worst thing for me is not the loss of property. My grandmother was shot by Russians in Zahaltsi”
It takes about an hour to get to Borodianka from the Sviatoshyn metro station in Kyiv. From the first days of the full-scale war, the village was occupied and bombed. The letters Z on the playground in the center and many destroyed buildings still remind of the Russians. The village is not being restored as actively as Bucha or Irpin. The locals attribute this to the fact that Borodianka is not so popular with the media. But, despite everything, Until February 24, 13 thousand residents lived in the village, now there are 8 thousand. This was clarified by Kostiantyn Lvovych Moroz, the deputy head of Borodiankamany Borodianka residents have already returned home and are rebuilding their lives.
Yuliia Kuzmenko visited Borodianka in October and then in December to talk to the locals and see how the repair works are progressing.
There were no significant changes from April to October
“My Borodianka!” exclaims Yuliia, a resident of the village, seeing the photos of her fellow villagers at the exhibition “Flash. Ukrainian photography today” in the Ukrainian House. “Now nothing is being done there at all, the locals are trying to achieve something, but in six months, even the collapsed houses have not all been dismantled, they take everyone on excursions — and that's it...” (the exhibition was held in October — ed.).
The girl left before the outbreak of hostilities, now she lives in Bucha and worries that her native Borodianka is practically not being restored. Damaged buildings are leaning and crumbling. One building on Tsentralna Street collapsed after the de-occupation. Yuliia assures: Borodianka residents are being helped with humanitarian aid: food, hygiene products, and baby food. But there is no sign of reconstruction: not even all victims have received certificates of damaged property.
“It was already too much”
Anna Bohush comes to Borodianka specifically to meet me. She now lives in Druzhnia, a village near Borodianka, where her apartment was destroyed by a bomb in early March. Anna shows me around the village and tells me about the beginning of the invasion and the current reconstruction.
On February 24 at 5:40 Anna received a call from a guy from a neighboring village: “Wake up, the war has started”. Her father was at work, on the night shift, and did not believe in the war, although he saw something flying overhead. Her grandparents humbly accepted the news, her mother was frightened.
On February 26, the first tragedy occurred, Anna recalls: 6 people of the same family died in the Staryky district from the shelling of a house. “We thought that was it. It was already too much”. Later, at Kruh, the main fork in the road to Kyiv and Teteriv, the residents of Borodianka saw a column of tanks. Anna and the residents of the building went down to the basement of their 5-story building. A few days later, the house was hit.
“Diia”, ASC, expert commission — and 2 sheets
Anna Bohush dreams that her building will be rebuilt, as well as the others. “Only since the beginning of October they started to move somehow, began to install windows where possible — it is either the help from the state or the UN.” We go with Anna to the entrance of her damaged building, to her floor. The girl put a box near the front door so that it could be seen if someone entered: looters sometimes come to the apartments. From the fifth floor, I take pictures of the neighborhood, and ask if there are birds of prey here — I saw a large bird at the bus stop. “We have not noticed any. We look at the sky when something more massive flies,” Ania smiles.
Now those who are left without housing live in a modular town. Some rent apartments and others live in neighboring villages or with relatives.
“If everyone leaves, then why is this war conducted?”
On another day I meet with local blogger Anna Tkachuk. Together with the woman and her 4-year-old daughter Yeva, we enter their apartment. Instead of a kitchen, there is a hole. In the cupboard, there are left pots, a sheet with a prayer, and children's toys. Yeva tells me about her teddy bear and unicorn and asks to show me the pictures I took. She also wants me to take pictures of birds from the 7th floor — they fly against the background of ruined high-rise buildings.
Before the full-scale war started, five people lived in this apartment: Anna, her husband, her daughter, and her parents. On February 24, the family woke up to a call, Anna had to get ready for work. She works at a gas station and was on shift on February 24-25. On February 25-26, people were buying up supplies in stores. On February 27, her family started hiding in the basement. On the 28th, in the morning, the Russians hit Anna's apartment.
Then the family went to their grandmother's house in the village of Zahaltsi in the Borodianka community. There were no Russians there yet. In a few hours, her parents and her husband returned home to get their things. They took clothes and shoes, but could not return to the village immediately because of the shelling. They arrived at Zahaltsi only in the evening. In early March, Borodianka was hit by aerial bombs. On March 4, Anna with her husband and their daughter went to Vinnytsia to stay with their friends, where ten other people lived. A week later they went to Ternopil Oblast.
Anna returned to Borodianka in early May. Now she rents an apartment in the village.
“The worst thing for me is not the loss of property. My grandmother was shot by Russians in Zahaltsi on March 31, on the last day of the occupation, when they were fleeing from Kyiv Oblast. They shot her and her neighbor. The neighbor's husband buried them in the yard, and in early April my husband and my father came to bury them...”
Reconstruction is slowing down
In total, only 3 apartments in Anna's building were destroyed. However, there are no utility lines above the damaged fifth floor, although people already live in the building. Anna recorded the destruction in “Diia” in March, and when she returned to the village, she went to the school building, which is now the administrative center (other administrative buildings in Borodianka are destroyed).
The expert group has already come seven times, says Anna. Nobody says anything useful. In September, they finally gave the act. Then Anna's family received compensation payments - 2 thousand hryvnias for an adult, and 3 thousand for a child since the destruction of the house. On October 13, they received a washing machine.
“At the very beginning, they said that they would repair our house. Then that they would demolish it to the 5th floor and install a roof. No one starts building here. Where should people go? There are intact apartments on the 9th floor, but they are not residential. The last expert commission concluded that no one will demolish it, the house is to be repaired, and it takes 2 months to get the documents. But what documents? We were not there, no one called us”.
In early December, the supports were made and the windows were sewed up in Anna's building. There is no talk of repairs yet.
In memory of Borodianka residents
From Anna's building, we went to the city center. Photos from here — with the mutilated Shevchenko monument — flew around the world. The authorities even decided not to repair anything here, to leave everything as it is, to make a kind of memorial. The State Agency for Tourism Development initiated the development of a strategy for visiting places of memory of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
“People get very angry when visitors take pictures,” Anna Tkachuk says. But she treats the photos with understanding: publicity will not hurt Borodianka.
Until February 24, people lived in these buildings, businesses operated, and Borodianka residents opposed the idea of preserving the destroyed center of the village and making it a point of an excursion route. Borodianka residents moved into one building, which suffered minor damage, and wrote on the facade with paint: “We want to live here”.
What do the Borodianka authorities say?
Kostiantyn Moroz, deputy head of Borodianka, rejects the accusations that nothing is being restored. He says the work has not stopped since the de-occupation. Everything just needs billions, which are not available. Even he is forced to live in a modular village.
The deputy head says that 90% of damaged windows have been replaced in the village. About 50 high-rise buildings are being restored in the amalgamated territorial community. 816 detached houses are already being repaired —roofs, windows, and doors are being restored. “For people to survive this winter”.
On December 8, 2 detached houses and social sector buildings were demolished. Another 2 high-rise buildings on Tsentralna Street are next in line fordemolition. There is no information about capital expenditures yet: “The total amount for major repairs, restoration of destroyed housing and reconstruction is measured in billions, not even hryvnias. And what we need today for current repairs is provided. The funds have been received, distributed, and they are already on the accounts of either the village council, contractors, or contracting organizations.”
In early December, the damaged 9-story buildings in the center of the village have already been dismantled. So, the memorial complex will definitely not be here. New housing is planned to be built on the site of the ruins. Anna Tkachuk believes that her village will rise from the ashes.
“I do not believe that there is no future here. Honestly, I do not understand those people who left, whose homes are intact. If everyone leaves, then why is this war conducted?”