On a sunny day, Ivan, a burly retired welder in his fifties, stood in front of his ruined house in Posad-Pokrovske, in the Kherson region of Ukraine.
A landmine warning sign behind a fence of a destroyed house in Posad-Pokrovske in the Kherson region of Ukraine.
“Blackberries grew in front of my house and local children constantly ate them,” he told UN human rights monitors. “Now the blackberries are drying up and no one touches them. This makes me very sad.”
As invading Russian troops rolled into the area in the spring of 2022, Ivan’s spacious two-story house took direct rocket hits, one landing in the kitchen and at least three more nearby, entirely destroying the pear orchard he had proudly planted and cared for.
Now, his village is being rebuilt and life is slowly returning.
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