Ukrainian village pays high price to keep Russia at bay
Posad-Pokrovske lies in southern Ukraine, between Kherson and Mykolaiv. When the Russians held Kherson, the village was no man's land, a buffer zone sacrificed to stop Russian forces advancing on Mykolaiv. The plan worked — but meant the village itself was almost completely destroyed.
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00:00 This used to be home to 2,400 people.
00:04 It was sacrificed to stop the Russians taking more Ukrainian territory in early 2022.
00:10 One of the main buildings, the House of Culture, completely destroyed.
00:20 This is the price they paid.
00:25 70% of this village was completely destroyed.
00:30 Each day there could be hundreds of impacts when the Russians were only a couple of kilometers away.
00:35 Now people have started to come back to what remains of their home.
00:39 Even though the war is not over, but at least their village is not the battlefield anymore.
00:44 Last year's work to demine the land and clear up the shells is done.
00:51 And now some villagers are coming back to plan how to rebuild their homes.
00:57 This was my grandson's room when he was a kid.
01:04 Now he's 25 and he will graduate from military school in Kiev and be sent to Kherson in March.
01:17 He tells us how the Russian attacks began when they were all still here.
01:22 I was cooking soup when suddenly bang it started.
01:28 Oh my God, airplanes flying.
01:30 And then, like today, twice, I start shaking at the sound of the bang.
01:35 His neighbor is also here, planning how to return to the village of his birth.
01:42 He'll have to oversee the demolition of what remains of his house before he can rebuild.
01:48 All this while bombs are still flying only a half hour drive away in Kherson city.
01:55 Who needs this war? How many have died already? It's hard for mothers to bear.
02:06 The main thing is we want this to end as soon as possible and get them out of our land.
02:13 A significant portion of the electricity system has already been restored.
02:23 Efforts are underway to restore the water supply.
02:33 Posad Pokrovske is part of a pilot project of the "We Build Ukraine" reconstruction program
02:39 led by the State Agency for the Restoration of Ukraine.
02:43 Larisa is a member of the village council which is overseeing the project.
02:49 One of the trickier things she's dealing with is helping people who've not only lost their homes
02:54 but also their property ownership documents.
02:57 I'm against the war. I want the Russians defined as terrorists.
03:02 Let the whole world stand against them. Why should our people die?
03:06 I'm against the war. It should have stopped yesterday.
03:09 We asked her what it was like living here before the war.
03:19 I'll start crying. We had a wonderful life.
03:25 But we didn't realize it until we had to pack our things and leave
03:30 because we started being shelled on March 14.
03:33 There's little left standing. The school, the kindergarten, gone.
03:41 Just this single store is still operational.
03:45 So why are villagers willing to return?
03:48 This is home. Home, you know. Home. I've been living here for 40 years.
03:57 This is home. The locals here are determined to bring back to life.
04:01 (laughs)