Market Day on Ukraine Front Charts Russia's Advance ¶
On a recent market day in Soledar, Ukraine, the vendors were not just selling their wares, but also their resilience in the face of Russia's advancing forces.
For Tetyana Barshchevska, a 47-year-old farmer, the past week has been a blur of fear and uncertainty. 'It really struck me today how much everyone has aged in the past week,' she said, looking closely at her friends and then back down at her table full of meat. 'It is from fear. You can see it in their eyes. Their eyes are older.'
Barshchevska's concerns are not just about the physical toll of the war, but also about the impact it will have on her farm and her livelihood. 'I have invested everything in them. All my labour has been poured into the farm,' she said, her voice filled with emotion.
As the Russians continue to creep up to the edges of Soledar, the locals are sounding an increasingly fatalistic note. 'If it kills me, it kills me,' pensioner Volodymyr Selevyorstov said, shrugging off the threat of rocket and artillery fire. 'The other day my neighbour's cow was killed by shrapnel and I had to pull it out of the yard so that it would not stink,' he recalled with a wry smile.
Despite the danger, the vendors of Soledar have developed a comradery that helps them better handle the ceaseless threat of Russian shells. 'Why even hide?' factory worker Denis Aleksandrov asked, cleaning his potatoes at one of the market stalls. 'If the shell comes flying in, it can hit anywhere, no matter where you hide.'
As the war rages on, the people of Soledar are left to wonder where they can run, and what the future holds for their town and their lives.
