It was a placing image.
Valentyna Konstantinovska, then 79, laid out on the ground sporting a lemon-yellow coat, studying to purpose a mock assault rifle at a civilian weapons coaching in Ukraine’s southeastern port metropolis of Mariupol.
Lower than two weeks later, on February 24, Russia invaded.
Town was minimize off and laid siege to, with Ukrainian officers estimating that as many as 25,000 civilians had been killed and not less than 95 % of Mariupol was destroyed within the brutal months that adopted.
Konstantinovska had deliberate to remain behind, it doesn’t matter what.
“I like my metropolis, I’m not leaving. Putin cannot scare us off,” she advised Al Jazeera on the time. throughout a coaching session by town’s Azov Regiment, “We are going to stand for our Ukraine till the very finish,”
A gaggle of older ladies who had volunteered for the conflict effort since 2014, nicknamed the “Babushka Battalion”, stated they might take up arms and even go “mano a mano” (hand at hand) in the event that they needed to defend their beloved metropolis.
Now, like lots of Mariupol’s former residents, most are scattered throughout Ukraine, and the world.
Members of the military of grannies have ended up so far as Germany and the UK, however a couple of stayed in Mariupol.
Liudmyla Smahlenko, 66, stayed within the Ukrainian port metropolis to assist with the deluge of wounded at a neighborhood hospital earlier than escaping and relocating to Norway midyear.
no returns
One 12 months on from the beginning of the conflict, Konstantinovska is at the moment dwelling in Vita-Pochtovaya, close to Kyiv, after stints in Poland and Spain.
She returned to Ukraine to as soon as once more assist the entrance by volunteering six days every week to assemble provides and weave nets.
“I by no means wished to depart Mariupol. I believed I’d be helpful there. I attended courses so I might assist the wounded – we had been set to withstand,” she stated.
Nevertheless, on February 26, 2022, Konstantinovska obtained a name from her granddaughter, who has diabetes and was in Poland.
She stated she had fainted whereas taking care of her daughter as a result of her blood sugar dropped to dangerously low ranges, and that nobody was round to assist.
Figuring out how critical diabetes and its repercussions may be, Konstantinovska threw on some clear trousers, a sweater and a few meals right into a backpack and rushed to catch the 3pm prepare west to Lviv.
As soon as on board, the conductor knowledgeable her it was the final prepare out of Mariupol. A number of hours later, the observe was blown up, and inside a couple of days, town had been fully minimize off.
“It was solely after I bought to Poland that I found my household had made the entire thing as much as lure me out of Mariupol. My kids understood the implications of my refusal to depart,” she stated.
“I solely turned the heater down just a little bit after I left pondering it might be good to return again to a heat residence after I return. I had no thought I’d by no means return.
She discovered from neighbors who stayed that her home in Mariupol has since been destroyed and her belongings looted.
“Issues that may’t get replaced are gone,” she stated. “Presents my late husband purchased from abroad when he was a captain. However everybody in my household is alive with all their legs and arms. I’ve began a brand new life that can result in victory.
combat between good and evil
The siege of Mariupol is the worst atrocity Russian forces in Ukraine are accused of so far.
In Mariupol, Russia is accused of a number of alleged conflict crimes, together with an assault on a drama theater that’s thought to have killed greater than 600 folks, in accordance with an investigation by The Related Press information company, the final remaining media group within the metropolis because the violence escalated.
With tens of hundreds of individuals fleeing for security, a as soon as tight-knit neighborhood has been modified ceaselessly.
Pals, neighbors, and individuals who coexisted collectively for his or her total lives, now dwell miles aside.
The folks Al Jazeera interviewed in Mariupol final 12 months at the moment are unfold across the globe: the UK, Canada, Portugal, Turkey, the USA and France.
On the primary night time of the conflict, Al Jazeera met Viktorii and Andriy Voytsekhovskyy who had been in search of shelter in a subterranean church,
Earlier that day, Andrew had a fortunate escape. A Grad rocket crashed into an residence 15 meters (49 ft) from him as he walked his Jack Russell, Chelsea, close to their residence within the metropolis’s left financial institution.
With their neighborhood among the many worst affected, being hit with missiles even earlier than the invasion started, they fled the next day.
Viktorii and the couple’s son, Leon, then two years outdated, made it to the Netherlands, however Andriy was unable to depart Ukraine as a result of males aged 18 and 60 had been instructed to remain and combat the Russians.
Viktorii and Leon have now moved to Ternopil, western Ukraine, to be nearer to Andriy, who’s a humanitarian volunteer.
Dwelling for years inside 20km (12 miles) of the tense entrance line with Russian proxy forces, the household invented a fairytale to assuage Leon’s fears.
There may be an “evil king” and he desires them to be afraid, however they won’t give him that.
Now, Viktorii is within the closing phases of ending her first animated movie primarily based on the story, which she plans to launch later this 12 months.
“It helped my son perceive what was occurring – it was a combat between good and evil. He referred to as the jets ‘evil dragons’ that had been ‘spitting fireplace in every single place’, the tanks for him had been caterpillars with weapons,” she stated.
It gave her the thought to depict the conflict in Ukraine by way of a baby’s eyes. The movie’s manufacturing group is made up of Ukrainians who fled Mariupol.
“If I hadn’t been in a position to do one thing like this, I believe I’d have gone loopy,” she stated. “We by no means really feel secure any extra, it’s extremely disturbing. We dwell daily as if it might be our final.
Konstantinovska, then again, feels no trauma after dropping every part.
Solely “anger and hatred in the direction of the Russians”, she stated.
If she had stayed in Mariupol, she thinks she would most likely be among the many first lifeless.
“If I had bought caught, I would have bitten these Russians – that is how indignant I used to be at them,” she stated. “Crying would not purchase you freedom. It’s the one who fights that good points the world.
