At a time when the war in Ukraine is set to last, 400,000 internally displaced people have taken refuge in Transcarpathia. In this mountainous region of western Ukraine bordering Hungary, prized in times of peace for its rivers and ski resorts, the future of thousands of them is now taking shape. They try, somehow, to project themselves, without knowing what tomorrow will bring, in a traditional region where the possibilities are rare.
Within the freezing Soviet walls of the former house of culture in the commune of Pylypets in the Ukrainian Carpathians, darkness has not swallowed everything. The gleams of the sun which pierce through the only window let glimpse the breath of the refugees who get their supplies here. In the boxes of clothes lined up carefully by the volunteers, Maria’s wrinkled hands search patiently. This 72-year-old woman, a refugee from Mykolaiv, an important city in the south of the country, has to find something to dress for the sunny days. Because, like many others, she is not ready to return to her native land, located between Kherson, occupied by the Russians, and Odessa, the main port of the country subject to a Kremlin blockade.
“You know, what we saw was terrible, terrible, she repeats, still moved to tears, despite the 80 days that have passed since her departure. We saw the incessant rockets above our heads every day, which is why we ended up leaving,” she describes, as if it were yesterday. Her fragile smile, adorned with a creamy white shawl, faded. She has no idea when she will be able to return. In the meantime, short of savings, she takes care of the household chores in exchange for lodging. And feeds on humanitarian aid, which continues to melt with the weeks of a persistent war.
“No way to go any further”
In the commune of Pylypets – which has nine villages and 7,000 inhabitants -, framed by coniferous forests and still snow-capped peaks in May, 4,500 internally displaced people have found refuge in the many tourist facilities, with locals or in schools. and other gymnasiums. The peace of these mountains is relative since a rocket targeted the goods station of a village 15 km from here. This is the first missile targeting Transcarpathia, a region in western Ukraine, which has hosted 400,000 displaced people since the start of the conflict.
“In any case, for many, there is no possibility of going elsewhere or going further, especially for men of age to be mobilized”, underlines the young mayor of the commune, Vitaly Pyrynets. In recent days, families who could, and dared, have returned home. Others have decided, on the contrary, to settle there, despite the harshness of the place.
According to the figures communicated by the mayor, a hundred companies are in the process of setting up their offices in Transcarpathia. “There are probably even more, because there is a system of direct communication between the private sector and the local owners of infrastructures”, explains the mayor, who specifies that “many of these refugees do not want to take the risk of relaunch their business in the kyiv region, despite the semblance of peace that currently reigns there”. He is currently in discussion with a textile entrepreneur, who could settle in the town.
“Adapt in a month”
In the small village of Izki, not far from the elegant wooden houses typical of the region, another company has taken up residence. Ella, 33, who lived in kyiv before the war, has just had brewing equipment shipped from the e-commerce she launched seven years ago. “I found this modest room, without water, electricity or toilets, I manage with that for the moment,” said this young woman as she entered the cramped office, which also serves as a storage space.
Every day, her husband takes her by car from their village, seven kilometers from here, on an asphalt “with a thousand potholes”. Otherwise, the goods “take two days longer to arrive than in kyiv” and the only electrician in the village has to wait. “He is in the pastures with his sheep currently. »
But for this enthusiastic young woman, who plans to employ someone, it’s only a matter of time. “The Ukrainians are those people who can change everything and adapt in barely a month,” she recalls, echoing the extraordinary capacity for improvisation shown by her compatriots on many fronts since the beginning of this war.
“I can’t find a job”
More than an hour and a half away, at the end of a winding road in the middle of flowering apricot trees, at the foot of the Carpathians, the small village of Nyzhnie Selysche is also put to use. Here, many inhabitants have devoted themselves to the evacuation of war zones, to the reception and delivery of humanitarian aid and food. About 1,000 people – a third of the local population – have taken refuge for three months in this isolated town dotted with food gardens.
Among them, Natasha, her mother and her three-year-old daughter, who live in a room in the kindergarten, which currently accommodates 60 people. Busy cutting tomatoes, the young 28-year-old mother, employed in a clothing store in the capital when the rockets weren’t whistling there yet, isn’t complaining. “We have to eat thanks to the food they give us for free, the people here help us a lot”, she says simply.
But the search for a job is much more complicated for this family with limited resources, in this region with very low wages (the minimum wage is around 200 dollars per month) and few jobs. “I can’t find it, although I’m looking in all sectors”, worries the young woman, who depends on the few buses that reach the town of Khoust, half an hour from here, and the sending of dwindling humanitarian aid in the region.
“We are very bored here”
Outside the kindergarten, Oleksandr and his wife, Liudmila, in her late 40s, watch the time pass as smoke bubbles mechanically fire from their electronic cigarettes. “We are very bored here, we do nothing all day,” say these parents of two children who continue their education online. In Kharkiv, a big disputed city in eastern Ukraine, in the car garage they ran, they were used to working up to six days a week. For this wealthy couple, “if the war lasts, we won’t be able to stay here, we don’t want to live anywhere else in Ukraine other than in Kharkiv”. The other option? Open a garage in western Poland.
In the village, the rustling suggests that many refugees would not want to work, “although many of them are much richer than us”. We are also worried about the vegetable gardens which may not be enough “to feed everyone”, if the situation were to drag on in this already densely populated region, and despite the recent distributions of potato tubers and corn.
In the producer’s store that adjoins the rutted asphalt that crosses the village, Aliona, 28, has been active since her arrival. At first voluntary, she breathes, after having lived through hell in Izioum, her hometown “which she misses so much”, partly destroyed by the Russian army and now occupied. “I am very grateful to Inna for giving me this job,” confides the one who replaced a saleswoman who left to join her husband in the Czech Republic, the traditional destination of emigration for thousands of local workers. This income allows him to meet the needs of his mother and his big brother, and not to fear the next few months.
Because, like the thousands of other souls in exile, no one knows if they will one day be able to find their native land occupied or destroyed by the Russian invader.