Stories from Ukraine: Healing remains slow as Borodyanka residents recover from occupation

Reports from Ukraine: This feature is part of an original Milwaukee Independent editorial series that recorded news from cities across Ukraine, including Milwaukee's sister city of Irpin, in May 2022. It was the first and, at that time, only news organization in Wisconsin that traveled to the country since it was invaded. The purpose of this journalism project was to document personal stories and events that detailed or showed the conditions of the war at that time, and their connections to Milwaukee. mkeind.com/reportsfromukraine

Russian forces arrived in the Ukrainian town of Borodyanka, 35 miles northwest of the capital Kyiv, shortly after the February 24 invasion began. The city sat at the crossroads of two highways. The location made Borodyanka attractive to commuters who worked in Kyiv, but also Russian forces making their way to the capital from Belarus.

The town was quickly overpowered by armed soldiers and armored tanks. On March 1, Russian jets bombed civilian targets, striking clusters of residential apartment buildings. Local officials said that about 90% of Borodyanka’s population had evacuated at the start of the shelling. But after Russian forces retreated, authorities found 650 dead bodies and of those 40 were children.

Borodyanka continues to deal with the aftermath of the Russian devastation, and the sheer scale of the destruction. Residents also faces ongoing dangers from unexploded ammunition. Crews have worked for weeks to clear the area of mines, boobytraps, and other ordnance.

Before the war, the city had a population of 14,000. Several thousand have returned, to reunite with families and review damage to their homes. And while Borodyanka is slowly recovering, by reopening hospitals and restoring infrastructure, it still faces a long road ahead.

On the day that the Milwaukee Independent team visited Borodyanka, we found a couple hundred citizens lined up hours ahead of the scheduled time to receive humanitarian aid. One individual spoke with us, 66-years-old Tatiana, about her experience living in Borodyanka during the Russian occupation.

“The occupiers behaved brutally to us. I saw a neighbor in a car driving towards the checkpoint to leave the city. He was shot right in the car. One woman was standing in line for bread, and she was shot in the head with a machine gun,” said Tatiana. “The first few days we sat at home and did not go out when we heard tanks passed nearby. We hid and did not even look out the window. But then we got used to it.”

Tatiana said the occupiers told them that they came to liberate the residents of Borodyanka from the Ukrainian nationalists.

She talked about how the Russians went to apartments where people continued to live, just to check if there was any suspicious activity. Where no one lived, they broke down doors, settled in, ate food, used electrical equipment.

“When the Russians retreated, they took everything that was precious, mostly money and gold. They left behind a sea of ​​garbage,” said Tatiana.

Nearby to the city square where residents waited for supplies was the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Tatiana explained that during the occupation, the Priest helped the Russians identify and hunt down members of the local Territorial Defense.

“After Borodyanka’s liberation, he was taken away by the SBU security service and is now in solitary confinement as a collaborator,” said Tatiana.

Also during the occupation, the Russians prevented local Ukrainian authorities from offering any help. Aside from the destroyed offices, city council employees, police, doctors, the very backbone of the city had all left.

“There was no opportunity to go to the hospital for medical help either. Then one day, the Russians just packed up and left. No one came to expel them. Only after a few days did our Ukrainian forces arrive,” said Tatiana. “After the occupation, life improved. At first humanitarian aid was brought almost every day. Now it is brought once a week on Tuesday at noon. People start arriving from 6:00 a.m. and stand in line for hours. By the time aid is given out, the people are waiting for hundreds of yards down the road. The humanitarian aid is not enough, so there is nothing left for the last people in line.”

Tatiana said that many shops had been able to reopen. But because so many people lost their jobs due the destruction caused by the Russians, few people could afford groceries. Most of the banks and ATMs in the city were also closed. The Milwaukee Independent team witnessed a crowd gathered outside one bank, waiting for it to open so they could withdraw cash.

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