During the January relief effort, photos of which you can see in this album, we brought each of the Samoan villagers products worth significantly more than their monthly pensions. This alone was a big help to these elderly people living in abandoned villages, but the war that was later triggered made the value of this aid grow even more. One of the babushkas told us that throughout the occupation she made bread from the bread mix we brought her in January (about 25 kg) and then distributed it to the other samosely living in the same village. “This saved our lives,” she – she recalled.

We then spent seven days in the Chernobyl Closed Zone, which allowed us to reach all the samosely. Among them, of course, was Viktor from Poliske, who was deported to Russia. This was our last visit. All these photos show how much the situation can change, because although at the time we thought these people had a hard life in Chernobyl, now from the perspective of the Russian occupation we know that it can be even worse. And it is, unfortunately.