Woman is last person in Ukrainian village refusing to leave her 6 children’s graves – World News
Galina Kotubey says that she is suffering from a lack of food but is determined to stay in Kvitneve, a village in Mykolaiv Oblast, despite being the only person left there
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Ukrainian woman refuses to leave village where kids are buried
An elderly woman has refused to flee an abandoned Ukrainian village because she doesn’t want to leave the graves of her children.
Galina Kotubey is the last person living in Kvitneve, a village in Mykolaiv Oblast which had around 400 residents before the Russian invasion.
The 87-year-old, who lived through the WWII, is determined to stay in her home, despite bombing nearby and a serious lack of food.
According to a Radio Liberty report, the gran won’t leave the sides of her six children’s graves, despite the perilous situation she finds herself in.
When asked whether there had been bombings over the past fortnight, Galina told a reporter: “The Russians left and they shoot a little bit at us.”
“I don’t want to go anywhere,” she continues, according to a translation.
The 87-year-old has refused to leave her home
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Image:
@visegrad24 / Twitter)
“I have six children buried here – here at the cemetery. Four sons and two daughters.
“Where should I go? I am 87-years-old and I am surviving the second war. Where? I don’t want to go anywhere.”
Galina, who has lived in Kvitneve for 50 years, said that she was feeling dizzy due to a lack of food.
While her story is a particularly stark one, the level of disruption in Ukraine over the past month has split many families and caused 10million people to flee their homes.
Of that number, four million have left the country in search of refuge.
One man trying to help some of the Ukrainians fleeing the war is Russian hotel owner Mikhail Golubtsov, who says it was partly the shame he feels over Vladimir Putin’s invasion that persuaded him and his family to open their doors.
So far they have welcomed 34 people into their home.
The Russian former construction engineer left his home country in 2014 over Moscow’s “unacceptable” annexation of Crimea.
He now runs a modest but cosy hotel in the green hills of central Serbia.
Galina said she wants to stay by her childrens’ graves
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Image:
@visegrad24 / Twitter)
Most of the hotel rooms are now taken up by Ukrainian refugees, who can stay free of charge, for as long as they need.
“The first seven people arrived because a friend gave them the address…now they are simply arriving,” said Golubtsov, 58.
He added: “At first (after the invasion started), I was in shock and I was so ashamed.
“For some time I could not speak Russian, but when guests arrive and they speak Russian to me, I speak Russian as well.
“I think the only thing I can do now is to help Ukrainians somehow.”
One of his guests was Anna Nizhegorodova, 46, a Russian married to a Ukrainian who had been living in Kyiv for the past 15 years.
Her two children aged nine and 16 were also with her.
Nizhegorodova said that after several days in Kyiv bomb shelters she and her Ukrainian friend Olga Manmar, an English teacher and mother of three, decided to leave, packing everything in two cars and joining refugee columns heading to Romania.
After several days, the group ended up in Golubtsov’s hotel near the town of Batocina, about 100km (60miles) southwest of Belgrade.
Four million people have fled Ukraine
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Image:
Getty Images)
Nizhegorodova said she “felt nothing” when she arrived.
She said: “In your mind you understand that everything around you is very beautiful and very quiet, but…you simply want to cover yourself with a blanket.”
Manmar, 39, broke into tears when describing how Ukrainian families were forced to part at the Romanian border. Ukraine has banned able bodied men from leaving the country.
“(When) you cross the border…you are safe…but you feel sorry for those who could not,” she said.
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