On February 24, 2022, at four in the morning, Liubov Pavlivna from the village of Zalissia in the Zhytomyr region woke up to incomprehensible sounds. At first, it seemed that the neighbors had turned on loud music. Going out into the yard, she saw a fiery glow over the forest. Thus, for a woman who had lived her whole life in the village, the war began.
War on the doorstep without any forewarning
«We in the village heard absolutely nothing, didn’t know anything,» — recalls Liubov Pavlivna. There were no prior signals, preparation, or rumors of a possible invasion, so the morning sounds of February 24 became a complete surprise for the residents of Zalissia.
Her husband promised to drive acquaintances to the bus stop, so they woke up early. They heard a rumble and saw a fiery glow in the direction of Davydky. This did not stop Mykola Yosypovych, who still drove the girls to the scheduled bus. «He returned at half past five. He says: war. What war?! With whom is that war?! He says: with Russia… We didn’t even hear, see, or know anything»…
The village of Zalissia, located near the border with Belarus, found itself at the epicenter of combat operations from the first days of the full-scale invasion, however, unlike many neighboring villages, it was not occupied. Battles raged here, missiles and bombs flew, and Russian helicopters hung over the heads of the villagers.
«We had no Russian equipment here, only helicopters were flying,» — explains the woman. They became a constant «feature» of the sky over the village at that time, humming extremely low, right over the treetops, three or four times a day.
Ukrainian tanks sometimes passed through the outskirts; tension reigned in the village from the constant strikes of enemy aviation.
Under a barrage of fire: day by day in the epicenter of battles
The village survived horrific shelling on March 16–17. As a result of a hit, the house where a family with three children lived burned down. People miraculously managed to run out of the home when one half of it was already blazing.
“Their house was large, so they were sitting in one half while the other side was already burning. They jumped out of that house,” the woman says. Later, the affected family received compensation and bought a new home in Ovruch.
On March 18, the situation significantly worsened. That evening, people were sitting in cellars, but at midnight they decided to return to their houses. It was at that moment that the village was hit by five missile strikes.
Fragments from one of the explosions flew into the godparents’ house. “A shrapnel piece flew apart, pierced the wall, a feather pillow tore, and it flew through the door, striking all the way into the kitchen—a shrapnel piece like this,” the woman describes the consequences of the shelling.
On March 19, a 500-kilogram bomb fell on the village. The explosion was so powerful that it blew out windows throughout the entire settlement and damaged the roofs of houses. “Windows were blown out, the roof was torn off everywhere,” Lyubov Pavlivna recalls. People began to board up the windows with planks and plastic wrap.
April 1, 2022, remains in memory… That day Lyubov Pavlivna was near the hayloft when intensive shelling began. “I quickly jumped out into the yard, fell to my knees, and hid behind the hayloft!” the woman emotionally recounts that moment.
During the shelling, a young man who was trying to hide in a cellar was injured. He fell from a slate roof and broke his heel. He had to undergo surgery. “He is still undergoing treatment,” the woman adds.
Afterward, electricity and gas supply stopped in the village. “There is no light, no gas throughout the entire village,” Lyubov Pavlivna states. People switched to firewood for cooking and heating.
Cluster munitions, deadly traps
Cluster munitions, which Russian military massively used against civilian infrastructure, posed a particular danger. “There were such cluster munitions, 4 meters long. All those clusters they launched, they scattered”, — says a resident of Zalissia.
Many cluster submunitions did not explode immediately, creating a deadly threat to local residents. “A tractor blew up on those clusters in the field”, — she recalls. Later, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations removed two trailers of unexploded ordnance from the village and surrounding fields.
In one place, an aerial bomb fell so heavy that even a farm tractor could not pull it out. “The Zhytomyr SES arrived and dug it out”, — the woman says.
The local school also came under fire. Four bombs fell nearby. “They did not reach the school”. Windows were blown out and the roof was damaged.
Later, the school was completely renovated at the expense of a state program. “They gave about 11 million for that school’s repair”, — the woman reports.
Difficult everyday life: daily life in cellars and kitchens
Constant shelling forced people to fundamentally change their way of life. Residents gathered in groups of 4–6 people in cellars, where they set up temporary shelters.
“In one cellar they put a wood-burning stove, and 18 people spent the night there. It is the absolute truth”, — she says. People slept on mattresses, trying to keep warm near improvised stoves.
Some of the residents moved to outdoor kitchens in the yards. “They lived in the kitchen, in the yard. They heated the stove there and sat”, — the woman explains the decision of her fellow villagers. In the outdoor kitchens, one could better hear the approach of danger than in houses with plastic windows, and hide in the cellar more quickly.
War challenges: damage, evacuation, and the path to recovery
Liubov Pavlivna’s house suffered serious damage. The roof was completely destroyed, the ceiling in one of the rooms was ruined, and everything was blackened by the explosions. «I have photos to show how it used to be. It’s simply terrifying… Everything is black, everything,» — the woman describes the condition of her home. — «Such streams flowed down the wall»…
A sister from Kyiv came to help with the repairs, but full restoration became possible only thanks to international aid.
Young families with children evacuated en masse to the west of Ukraine. For older people with a large farm, this decision was difficult. «Everyone has a farm, everyone has three cows, pigs. Where will you go?» — explains Liubov Pavlivna why she stayed.
One of the evacuation attempts almost ended in tragedy: a family tried to leave for Cherniakhiv. They loaded livestock onto a trailer but came under fire in the middle of the road. «The woman was thrown into a ditch — the car doors fell off», — she says.
International restoration aid
After the liberation of the village, international aid played a key role in the restoration.
«A Ukrainian woman from America, Tetiana, joined in. They even hired a construction crew», — says Liubov Pavlivna. Thanks to this help, many families managed to re-roof and restore their homes.
A separate thank you the woman expresses to Czech volunteers: «The Czechs helped people very much. I thank them, those Czechs». Benefactors installed plastic windows and doors in the damaged houses.
The restoration of normal life happened gradually. First, they repaired the bridge, which was destroyed during the hostilities. Before that, they had to drive a 15-kilometer detour.
People who were forced to stay with relatives or acquaintances in remote villages did not return immediately. «They didn’t return right away, but they came every other day, because it’s livestock», — she explains. The farm required constant care, so they regularly came to feed the animals.
Life sprouting through the ruins
The experience of living under constant shelling taught local residents how to survive in extreme conditions. They cooked over wood fires and created a system of mutual aid…
In the village, people had their own households, which significantly eased the food situation, and they organized bread delivery.
Despite the fact that active hostilities in the village area have ceased, the psychological consequences of the war remain. “May it never happen again, so that no one ever sees it, the horror that we experienced,” — Lyubov Pavlivna says with pain.
The woman emphasizes: “The most important thing is that we stayed alive, that the bomb did not reach our house”…
Today, the village of Zalissya is gradually returning to normal life. Infrastructure has been restored, the school is operating after major repairs, and people are returning to their homes. Memories of those terrible spring days of 2022 will forever remain in the minds of those who survived this horror.
Lyubov Pavlivna’s story is a testament to the strength of spirit, mutual aid, and resilience of ordinary people in the face of the most terrible ordeal of their lives.
The material was prepared by Iryna Hubar and Olha Halenchyk based on the results of a field mission within the project “Strengthening Civil Society Resilience for Justice and Accountability” with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).