Happiness, says Zinaïda Guyrenko is “to have enough not to die of hunger, clothes and shoes”. “And this is my case,” said this Ukrainian retiree with old age, however shaken by the Russian invasion.
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Until May 2024, Ms. Guyrenko lived in Zaoskillia, a village near the front, next to Koupiansk in the Kharkiv region (northeast), border of Russia and ravaged by more than three years of Russian bombardments.
The little lady, who loses her memory a little, confuses confusedly having survived strikes. “I was lying on the ground, it all started to collapse. When I reopened my eyes, I was still alive, like an idiot. ”
Evacuated, she now lives in the Seniors Velyka Rodyna (“large family” in Ukrainian) refuge opened in March 2022 by an NGO, in a dormitory of an industrial zone in Kharkiv, capital of the region of the same name.
Zinaïda Guyrenko thanks her benefactors for taking an interest in “old clothes” and claims not to remember his age: “I am 39, do the calculation.” All her life, she worked for rail transport. “I really like railways since my childhood,” said this woman with a beautiful blue look, crying.
War geriatrics
In Ukraine, among civilians, the war launched by Russia particularly kills the elderly.
The UN has established that almost half of civilians killed in 2024 near the front were people over the age of 60, who represent approximately a quarter of the Ukrainian population.
For reasons that can be personal, financial or related to physical mobility problems, they are often the last to live, isolated, in the most dangerous localities. Some refuse to evacuate, saying to prefer to die at home.
In Kharkiv, the founder of the Seniors refuge, Olga Kleïtman, 56, says that the needs of Gériatrie in Ukraine, in the midst of war, are immense. In her region alone, she believes that 32,000 elderly people had to leave their homes because of the fighting and must be taken care of.
But, according to Ms. Kleïtman, there are only eight public retirement houses for the whole area, a largely insufficient number. She criticizes the authorities for not financially supporting her establishment, which welcomed 60 residents at the end of March 60 and depended only on private donations. “People who have worked all their lives deserve normal old age,” said Olga Kleïtman. “It’s about our dignity.”
“Everything will be fine”
Architect by profession, Ms. Kleïtman speaks to AFP of enlargement projects. Most of its beneficiaries from rural areas, she wants to create a large vegetable garden with animals to reproduce “sounds and odors” of a village.
One of the residents, Serguii Ioukovsky, 50, amputated with both legs after a work accident, lived in the countryside with his younger brother. But his brother was killed by a mine by going to “look for wood” near the village of Kotchoubeïvka, in the Kharkiv region. “I don’t even know where he is buried,” repeats Mr. Ioukovsky. For a year, he lived alone before being evacuated to Kharkiv. The future is dark but, he concludes, “everything will be fine for Ukraine, Putin is an asshole”.
In another room, bedridden in front of a window, there is Iourï Miagra, 84, from Saltivka. This district, located at the northern entrance to Kharkiv, was terribly bombed, from the start of the invasion, when the Russian troops tried to conquer the city. “Was Ukraine divided?” Asks Miagoky, lost, like so many others, in the uncertainty of the conflict.
Scar
In his room, since September 2024, Zinaïda Guyrenko has cohabited with Olga Zolotareva, 71, who grumbles when his neighbor gets lost in his answers.
For 28 years, Olga Zolotareva took care of mental disabled people in the city of Lyptsi, not far from the Russian border. When the invasion started, these people were evacuated, but Ms. Zolotareva remained.
In May 2024, when Russia launched a new offensive on the Kharkiv region, it was in her house, when “there was a strike”. A shine “of I don’t know what” broke her right leg. She shows her atrocious scar. In addition to peace, she hopes to be able to take normally.
A few minutes later, at the time of the farewell, Olga Zolotareva shared another little hope. That of still having “the smell of a man”, because, “of course”, it lacks a lot.
