Joseph Campbell and Zohra Bensemra

BORODYANKA, Ukraine (Reuters – Zinaida Makishaiva, a Ukrainian woman who survived World War Two as well as the collapse of the Soviet Union among other seismic events has her chickens to thank. She was forced from her home by Russian soldiers for a brief, but devastating occupation of her hometown.

The 82-year old was calm when Russian tanks arrived in Borodyanka (northwest of Kyiv), in March. Grad missiles then pounded into her home and destroyed her chicken coop.

Shelling killed a neighbor next door. Russian troops then began visiting every day.

The daily routines she had established in her early childhood “rural work” were quickly ruined by missile strikes and shelling.

It’s hard to describe what I felt. I felt dead, senseless… Because of all the shelling that took place, I had no time to carry logs. They destroyed those houses that way,” Makishaiva said. She spent much of her adult life in Odesa, Ukraine’s Black Sea port.

“The doors had been blown out. Because I was hungry, I brought the chickens inside. I didn’t have anything to eat except for potatoes, just that. I don’t even have water nor gas.

She said that the Russian soldiers arrived in three waves. The first was the most brutal. A few soldiers approached her home and demanded that she remain in the basement.

“‘Get in the cellar, you old bitch!’ (the Russian troops said). I told them: ‘Kill me, but I won’t go’,” said Makishaiva.

EGGS

Makishaiva, a brave soldier who fought to save water at a well nearby during the occupation days, was caught in crossfire.

She still kept her eggs from her chickens when food was scarce. Because her three children and one grandchild live far from her, she was unable to see them.

Makishaiva, who loved dancing the waltz as a child, now walks for more than 3 hours daily, passing shattered buildings, wrecked Russian tanks and other debris to get food aid at the church or community center.

With the aid of valerian, thirty days of sleepingless nights are a thing of past.

It’s quieter now that we have radio. “I felt like I had lost my hearing for over a month. No conversations with other people, apart from with my dog and cat,” she stated.

“Now that the radio is indicating it’s past midnight, I will take valerian. Then I fall asleep soundly to 5. Dreams are more vivid now. It was terrible. Many people lost their lives. It was scary.”

God determines what will occur. I’ve been through two wars and now this. Makishaiva expressed his hope that the fighting has ended and it won’t happen again.

Russia sent thousands of troops to Ukraine in a special operation on February 24. It called it a demilitarization of the country’s southern neighbor and a way to “denazify”.

According to Kyiv and Western supporters, this pretext is for unprovoked aggressive acts. The invasion was met with stiff resistance by the Ukrainian army and Western countries imposed severe economic sanctions against Russia.