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By: Tim Mak and William Glover Weiss
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Before the war, and before she retired, Svetlana Goi was a typist.
The 76-year-old proudly says she was once the best typist for a company that manufactured machines which helped feed animals.
“I was always the fastest; they were always bringing me the most important pieces of work to type at the plant,” she recalls.
But that life – and her town of Orikhiv, about 65 km southeast of Zaporizhzhia – is long gone.
“The Russians, they destroyed it fully,” she said. One Ukrainian official estimated last month that 80 percent of the buildings and homes in the town have been destroyed or damaged.
Orikhiv is now one of the main focal points of the ongoing counteroffensive, as Ukrainian forces try to push south against dug-in Russian positions.
You can see it in the below map, between the two full circles.
But that life – and her town of Orikhiv, about 65 km southeast of Zaporizhzhia – is long gone.
“The Russians, they destroyed it fully,” she said. One Ukrainian official estimated last month that 80 percent of the buildings and homes in the town have been destroyed or damaged.
Orikhiv is now one of the main focal points of the ongoing counteroffensive, as Ukrainian forces try to push south against dug-in Russian positions. You can see it in the below map, between the two full circles.
Svetlana held out as long as she could. She spent ten months in the city – “screaming and shouting and falling on the floor,” are the most vivid memories she had during that time of fighting.
The shelling was constant. The military urged her to evacuate. But she held out. Like so many Ukrainians, she had been working for her home over the course of an entire lifetime – and she wouldn’t leave it unless she had no other choice.
But the war slowly made a painful split inevitable.
At first, she used gas to cook food. Then the Russians blew up the gas pipelines, she recalls.
After that, she started using electricity to prepare her food; and the Russians destroyed the electrical stations.
At first she used tap water; then the water mains were hit. By the end she was using water from a river, cooking over an open fire.
Svetlana’s home slowly degraded. First, her roof caved in. Then a missile hit the balcony and busted up all her windows. The house was eventually too damaged to live in.
She had no choice but to leave her town for the major hub of Zaporizhzhia, where we met her at a hub for internally displaced people.
As Ross and I drove to the hub, I looked at the map and saw that it was near a spot I had marked as a no-go area in the spring of 2022 – too dangerous to travel to. Now it was safe enough for coffee shops to operate; trams to pick up locals; and something resembling normal life to continue.
Still, it all nags at the septuagenarian. Home is home. And she still voluntarily travels back to the ruins of her town – a dangerous journey she completes mainly due to her love of furry companions.
“I have animals left there,” she told me. Before the war, she had loved feeding the neighborhood cats and dogs. Despite the shelling, she had continued to do this during the full-scale invasion.
And now, even after her evacuation from her destroyed house, she still slips back into Orikhiv, making the 65 kilometer journey to the place where her neighborhood cats have sought refuge.
“There’s a basement, and it has a lot of cats there, because they came from the houses where people live,” she said. “But the dogs, they don’t sit in the basement. They’re everywhere in the city; but they know that I’m bringing them food… so the dogs are running [to greet me].”
(I asked for photos of her cats and dogs; but alas, as Ross reminded me, she’s in her 70s and doesn’t have a smart phone)
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Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.
Ukrainian forces continue a counteroffensive along multiple areas of the frontlines, while a seven-nation African delegation meets with Putin to discuss a generalized peace plan.
The Institute for the Study of War is currently tracking fighting near Svetlana’s hometown of Orikhiv, a recent flashpoint. This comes alongside continued fighting on the outskirts of Bakhmut, which has seen some of the heaviest action in the war so far; and increased fighting between the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts.
In Russia, an African peace delegation — made up of members from Egypt, Senegal, Congo-Brazzaville, Comoros, South Africa, Zambia, and Uganda — met with Putin after their trip to Kyiv to discuss a path towards peace.
Their meeting with Putin comes right after they visited Kyiv. While the African delegation was in the Ukrainian capital, the Russian military had bombarded the city.
Despite apparently occupying an underground shelter, a spokesperson for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Vincent Magwenya, told a South African media outlet shortly after the attack that he did not witness anything.
“It’s very strange that we didn’t hear or see an explosion,” Magwenya said. “There’s obviously some deliberate misinformation being spread here. People are going on about their day.”
Will joined us here in Kyiv as a reporting fellow this week. And he got quite a welcome!
WILL HERE: I would like to take this moment to interject and state that my first morning in Kyiv was Friday, and during my first meal in the capital I heard what I thought was thunder close by, until Tim pointed out a family near us had jumped up off a park bench and run off. We definitely heard the explosions.
And shortly after, the South African President walked back his spokesperson’s statement:
“Today during our visit, we heard rocket strikes. Such activity does not bode well for establishing peace, so we talk about the need for de-escalation from both sides, for peace to come and the problem to be resolved.”
LATEST FROM KHERSON: Kakhovka Dam breach was likely “an inside job,” The New York Times reports. Evidence suggests an explosive charge in the concrete block at the dam’s base destroyed the dam.
The water level in Kherson continues to drop, and now sits at .94 meters, around 4 meters lower than it was around 10 days ago.
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Tymofiy Mylovanov, the head of the Kyiv School of Economics, sparked an online firestorm not long ago when he posted a Twitter video showing. busy McDonalds in the center of Kyiv.
He was trying to show how Kyiv remained vibrant and resilient despite the war; Ukraine detractors quickly seized on the images of a glistening McDonalds to suggest that the war in Ukraine wasn’t that bad at all — and actually, a waste of U.S. taxpayer money. “Where’s the genocide?” asked one commenter sarcastically.
It’s a critical notion to understand about modern living in Kyiv: yes, you can get a Big Mac here. But after folks eat dinner, everyone heads home before curfew and waits for the likely bombardment in the city to start.
There are open-air terraces, AND there is terror.
The Ukrainian meme army quickly responded:
Ultimately, though, reality delivered the most striking comeback. This week, a group of four Kalibr missiles were launched by Russia, striking a residential complex, an educational institution, a business center… and a McDonald’s.
As we’ve said, William Glover Weiss has arrived in Kyiv for a reporting stint.
But forget about running our social media account, doing research, and interviewing subjects – his most important task was to import the most valuable goods that we could bring into Ukraine…
Spicy Shin Ramen, a pack of 24, of which I have already eaten five packs in the last two days. Praise be to Will! He also brought along some hamburger gummies, and some less important stuff, like CBRN equipment, gas masks and a geiger counter (if you subscribed to help us pay for that, THANK YOU).
That’s in the PRO column for Will. On the CON column, HE LEFT THE SRIRACHA AND TABASCO IN THE UNITED STATES. The Counteroffensive strongly believes in calisthenics as corrective action. Will owes us four hill sprints, two for each bottle he carelessly left behind.
Our featured Dog of Peace this week is August Kaplan, of Pound Ridge, NY! I’ve met August in person and must say: VERY energetic!
Today, due to Svetlana’s love of cats, we’re going with a Cat of War: this cat we saw on the street near Hostomel Airfield.
Stay safe out there!
Best,Tim
This story was written by The Counteroffensive with Tim Mak, which publishes regular intimate stories on the war in Ukraine, live from Kyiv. You can keep up with The Counteroffensive by subscribing free or paid here.
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