Julius Strauss

The looming battle for Chasiv Yar

Credit: Getty Images

In the eastern Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar, seven-year-old Symon was clinging to a chocolate bar and a packet of biscuits he had just been given by an aid worker. With the sound of each new shell landing – and they were coming every few seconds – his small body shook and shivered in sympathetic rhythm. Eventually he buried his head against his mother, Svetlana’s, coat and closed his eyes.

‘We are terrified’, said Svetlana, a 47-year-old who worked as a chemist in a laboratory before the war. ‘Of course we want to leave.’

Symon, seven, with his mother Svetlana and grandfather Serhii. (Credit: Julius Strauss)

Using back roads, and in a borrowed helmet and flak jacket, I visited Chasiv Yar this past weekend with a Canadian colleague, a driver and a photographer.

The shelling around the town – which made for constant, distant thunder – was less intense than usual.

‘This is a quiet day’, said 11-year-old Bohdan, who had also received chocolate.

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