Ukrainian families divided by Russian occupation hang on and hope to be reunited

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Anton Shtuka for NPR ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — On a current Saturday morning, a number of dozen volunteers at a youth middle are weaving strips of material to make camouflage netting for the Ukrainian military. They're within the capital of Ukraine's southeastern province of Zaporizhzhia, about two-thirds of which is managed by Russian forces. The entrance line is 25 miles from right here. However this metropolis — the most important within the province, and a significant industrial hub — stays firmly in Ukrainian palms.

Lots of these serving to within the conflict effort right here at present fled houses that at the moment are in Russian-occupied territory additional south. That is the case for 36-year-old Kateryna Kyshkan, one of many volunteers, who lived for a 12 months and a half below Russian occupation.

"It was horrible," she says. "It was very scary as a result of there have been quite a lot of tanks and bombs. And they'd come into my home."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7008x4672+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F42%2F31%2Fef3db03b46d181c1c7663c965432%2Fdsc08216-2.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7008x4672+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F42%2F31%2Fef3db03b46d181c1c7663c965432%2Fdsc08216-2.jpg" class="img" alt="Kateryna Kyshkan, 36, fitness trainer from Mykhailivka, IDP and volunteer. Her teeshirt reads, "Our Russophobia is not enough."" loading="lazy"/> Kateryna Kyshkan, 36, a health coach from Mykhailivka, volunteers for the conflict effort after being displaced. Her T shirt reads, "Our Russophobia isn't sufficient." Anton Shtuka for NPR cover caption

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Anton Shtuka for NPR Many individuals fled instantly. Kyshkan says she stayed so lengthy as a result of she believed the Ukrainian military would save them. By the summer season of 2023, it was more and more troublesome and harmful to get out.

Kyshkan exhibits the route she and her 14-year-old daughter took in July 2023 on a map.

To enter Ukraine from occupied territory, you need to move by Russia or a 3rd nation, similar to Belarus. It additionally means going by Russian checkpoints, the place troopers search your telephone, your belongings and your particular person, in a course of referred to as "filtration" that Kyshkan describes as "horrifying." All of the extra so as a result of she has a patriotic Ukrainian tattoo displaying the vyshyvanka, a conventional needlepoint that has turn out to be an emblem of Ukrainian resistance, on her forearm that she says she hid below lengthy sleeves.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7008x4672+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb0%2F5b%2F3765622a4213a4680fbbc9a03c08%2Fdsc07697-enhanced-nr.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7008x4672+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb0%2F5b%2F3765622a4213a4680fbbc9a03c08%2Fdsc07697-enhanced-nr.jpg" class="img" alt="Kateryna Kyshkan, 36, weaving strips of cloth into a giant net to make camouflage netting." loading="lazy"/> Kateryna Kyshkan weaves strips of material into camouflage netting. She frightened that her patriotic Ukrainian tattoo would get her arrested at Russian checkpoints. Anton Shtuka for NPR cover caption

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Anton Shtuka for NPR One among Moscow's calls for for ending its conflict in Ukraine is the popularity of 4 Ukrainian provinces, together with Zaporizhzhia, as belonging to the Russian Federation. The opposite three are Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk.

Whereas the Kremlin's forces don't fully management these areas, Russian President Vladimir Putin claims their residents selected to hitch Russia in referendums. However these referendums, held within the fall of 2022 at gunpoint, had been condemned as unlawful by the U.N. Normal Meeting and had no validity below worldwide regulation.

Kyshkan remembers Russian troopers coming to her home with the ballots. She says she locked her door and hid upstairs. She says many individuals hid — or, in the event that they had been too afraid, they simply went forward and voted because the Kremlin wished.

Empty streets and mistrust of the U.S. <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6528x4352+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff4%2Ffa%2F094d74944baa9a5ded9d4c758b50%2Fdsc08422.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6528x4352+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff4%2Ffa%2F094d74944baa9a5ded9d4c758b50%2Fdsc08422.jpg" class="img" alt="People walk down the street along banners commemorating fallen soldiers in Zaporizhizha." loading="lazy"/> Folks stroll down the road previous banners commemorating fallen troopers in Zaporizhzhia. Anton Shtuka for NPR cover caption

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Anton Shtuka for NPR Zaporizhzhia's streets are almost empty. There aren't any Russian troopers within the metropolis, however there's at all times the specter of Russian drones and missiles, and sirens wail many instances a day.

Twenty-three-year-old Alyona Serdyuk and Sergey Vasylko are ready for us within the parking zone of a colorless grouping of residence blocks. They dwell on the sixth flooring of one of many buildings, together with Serdyuk's dad and mom. Alyona's mom Vita Serdyuk, 48, is at dwelling.

The household, together with Vasylko's dad and mom, fled their hometown of Komysh Zoria, about 50 miles southeast of right here, a pair months after the conflict began. Vasylko's dad and mom now dwell elsewhere within the province.

"Earlier than the conflict, we had a very good life," says Alyona Serdyuk. "We had a home, we had a enterprise, we traveled."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7008x4672+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F2b%2F79%2Ff19f251e49b59a5f36d324b9f68c%2Fdsc08862-enhanced-nr.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7008x4672+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F2b%2F79%2Ff19f251e49b59a5f36d324b9f68c%2Fdsc08862-enhanced-nr.jpg" class="img" alt="Alona Serdiuk, 23 (right), her fiance Serhii Vasylko, 23 (middle) and Vita Serdiuk, 48 IDP's from Komysh Zoria, Zaporizhia region at Vita's Serdiuk home in Zaporizhia on 29 Mar 2025 Images: @shtukaanton - Anton Shtuka/NPR" loading="lazy"/> Alyona Serdyuk, 23 (proper), her fiance Sergey Vasylko, 23 (center) and mom Vita Serdyuk, 48, at dwelling collectively in Zaporizhzhia. Anton Shtuka for NPR cover caption

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Anton Shtuka for NPR The household owned a bakery. They thought they may stick it out. However Serdyuk says it turned clear in a short time that they must depart — situations had been lawless and everybody was afraid. Younger girls dressed as unattractively as doable and by no means went out alone.

She says the Russian troopers might do something they needed.

"In the event that they wish to kill, [they] kill. In the event that they wish to confiscate [your] automotive, they confiscate your automotive. Take your home…"

One evening, she says, drunk troopers killed a complete household on their avenue. "Two kids and a mom and father." Everybody who might depart, left, she says.

A household from the Crimean Peninsula has since moved into their home. A neighbor who stayed behind tells them the brand new household is caring for it.

Requested how they'll bear it, she says: "We haven't any different manner. We won't do something about it."

They heard what President Trump's particular envoy Steve Witkoff mentioned in an interview final month with Tucker Carlson in regards to the jap Ukrainian areas partly occupied by Russia. "They're Russian-speaking," Witkoff mentioned. He was unable to call the 4 areas. "There have been referendums the place the overwhelming majority of the individuals have indicated they wish to be below Russian rule," he mentioned.

This shocked the household. "What he mentioned is horrifying" — "it is horrible," mom and daughter say, talking over one another. "As a result of that is our dwelling."

Vita Serdyuk says earlier than the conflict, everybody spoke Russian in addition to Ukrainian. "We lived in peace and it did not matter which language you spoke," she says.

One of many Kremlin's justifications for the conflict was to save lots of Russian audio system, who it mentioned had been being persecuted in Ukraine.

Serdyuk says now talking Russian, which she calls the language of the occupier, "disgusts us." The household have all switched to Ukrainian.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7008x4672+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe7%2Ff5%2F87762fcf4a19a6ff8eedf8b8657a%2Fdsc09032-2.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7008x4672+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe7%2Ff5%2F87762fcf4a19a6ff8eedf8b8657a%2Fdsc09032-2.jpg" class="img" alt="Alona Serdiuk, 23, an IDP from Komysh Zoria, Zaporizhzhia region holds her painting in Ukrainian's flag colors at parents' home in Zaporizhia." loading="lazy"/> Alyona Serdyuk holds a portray with Ukraine's flag colours at dwelling in Zaporizhzhia. Anton Shtuka for NPR cover caption

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Anton Shtuka for NPR The Trump administration has indicated that it could quickly acknowledge Russia's possession of Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed in 2014, in addition to Zaporizhzhia and the opposite three territories Russia has partially occupied since 2022, in a one-sided peace deal it's negotiating with Putin.

The governor of Zaporizhzhia province, Ivan Fedorov, says Ukraine won't ever settle for the lack of its lands below occupation. However he advised The Economist journal, "We perceive that with out British, European and American assist, we will not liberate our territories."

Federov mentioned if a ceasefire had been imposed on Ukraine, it might solely be a matter of time earlier than the conflict resumed. "Trump could make selections in regards to the territory of the USA, however not that of Ukraine," he mentioned.

Household conversations persist with impartial topics Sergey Vasylko's 69-year-old grandparents stayed behind below Russian occupation. He calls them day by day.

They reply the telephone, clearly overjoyed to listen to the voice of their solely grandchild.

They ask him about sports activities — he likes to play soccer — and his job as an area emergency employee.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7008x4672+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff2%2F87%2F44b415ab4b22a50ce807a871fb75%2Fdsc08761.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7008x4672+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff2%2F87%2F44b415ab4b22a50ce807a871fb75%2Fdsc08761.jpg" class="img" alt="Incoming call from grandfather Serhii Vasylko who's still in an occupied territory." loading="lazy"/> Sergey Vasylko will get an incoming name from his grandfather, who's nonetheless in an occupied territory. Anton Shtuka for NPR cover caption

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Anton Shtuka for NPR As they converse, Alyona explains that they're very cautious to by no means talk about something that would get the couple in bother — just like the conflict or the Russian troopers who now management their lives.

"I really like you and see you quickly," Sergey says to his grandparents as they hold up.

Sergey's grandparents have a backyard and are capable of develop a few of their very own meals. However drugs is scarce. And with well being care employees all gone — many Ukrainians in specialised professions fled — it is troublesome to see a physician.

This close-knit household nonetheless hopes to return dwelling and be reunited. However that is trying much less and fewer probably the longer the conflict goes on. Alyona and Sergey had hoped his grandparents might be at their wedding ceremony this September. However with their area nonetheless divided by conflict, they're going to probably must go forward with out them.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7008x4672+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F87%2Fd8%2Fabd5146240058bb7b964ac4ffa04%2Fdsc09375.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7008x4672+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F87%2Fd8%2Fabd5146240058bb7b964ac4ffa04%2Fdsc09375.jpg" class="img" alt="The New Step medical wellness center, destroyed by a Russian missile strike." loading="lazy"/> The New Step medical wellness middle, destroyed by a Russian missile strike. Anton Shtuka for NPR cover caption