The river is ours again
The story of a woman from Kherson region
Our Inhulets River has been with us all our lives. I’ve seen other rivers, and seas — blue, transparent. Our river is murky.
But when you’ve lived here for years and always return to the river — in good times and bad — it becomes a very important part of you. Of your very essence.
Toward the end of the occupation we saw that everything had been mined. And after the dam was destroyed, the water rose five or six meters. Everything that had been packed into the banks — mines, shells, grenades — was washed into the Inhulets.
We stopped going there. It was dangerous. And there was enough to worry about anyway…
I missed the peaceful times so much that I looked at old river photos on my phone. The sappers come here constantly: diving, searching everywhere — the shore and the riverbed.
We’re really waiting for them to finish. That will be a celebration — being able to walk freely to the Inhulets again! The reeds will rustle as always, and the wind will make small ripples on the water.