Ukraine’s Frontline Civilians Still Think War With Russia Won’t Come

Three times in seven years Valentyna Dzyuba’s roof has been destroyed, leaving the 71-year-old and her daughter to live for a while in the tiny cellar in their eastern Ukraine house that serves as a food store and bomb shelter.

On one occasion something struck but didn’t explode. Dzyuba reached into the attic to find a small-gauge mortar shell (“it looked a bit like a bicycle pump”), which she scooped into her apron and carried outside. Another time, her 41-year-old daughter, Halyna Nevynna, extracted a piece of shrapnel from her own stomach, having been hit by a shell in front of the house.