The war through Meduza readers’ eyes. Today we publish a letter from Gordey in Marhanets...

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War. What is happening on day 1582. Ukraine attacked the Orenburg gas processing plant and the helium plant that forms a single complex with it overnight, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said. Orenburg is more than 1,200 kilometers from the front line. Orenburg…

The war through Meduza readers’ eyes. Today we publish a letter from Gordey in Marhanets, Ukraine

Our city, Marhanets, is in the Nikopol district, now sadly known for constant shelling from the left bank. In the first months after the seizure of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, life in the city remained relatively peaceful. But on June 9, 2022, everything changed: that evening Russian Grad multiple-launch rocket systems shelled Chervonohryhorivka, a settlement a couple of kilometers from us. From that moment, tube artillery and rocket systems began hitting Marhanets regularly […].

All my life I spoke Russian. I liked Russian culture, I traveled to Belgorod and the region, I liked those cities. Even after the full-scale invasion I did not stop speaking Russian. Year after year I remained a naive optimist: I thought the war would end quickly, that they simply would not have enough missiles to shell us every day. How wrong I was.

By 2023, Russian reconnaissance drones were constantly hanging over Nikopol and Marhanets. Because of this, artillery began striking even more accurately, not only at residential buildings but also at factories. But people get used to anything; the shelling became a terrible routine. People simply lived and waited for Enerhodar to be liberated. I continued studying remotely, walked with friends, and gradually seemed to stop noticing the war around me, although I understood that the front ran right across the water, only a few kilometers away.

On June 6, 2023, the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was destroyed […] The city was left without water supply, since it had previously come from pumping stations on the Dnipro. Water instantly disappeared from stores; deliveries could not keep up. For a whole year we lived in a cycle of endless trips: we collected tons of water from local springs for ourselves and our relatives. And even to this we managed to adapt […].

In 2025 I left to study in Poltava, but returned home in winter. By May 2026 the situation in Marhanets had become critical. The reservoir no longer exists, the distance has shrunk, and Russian FPV drones now strike the city en masse. They attack everything that moves. The local authorities still have not covered dangerous sections with anti-drone nets, although the war has been going on for years. It is a huge disgrace: money goes nowhere, while people are left alone with death.

Now many friends and acquaintances advise me to abandon my studies and leave the country or switch to remote learning. But even after the recent missile strikes on Poltava, I remain in Ukraine. I have become a realist and understand that the situation in Marhanets and other frontline cities is unlikely to improve in the near future. Still, leaving everything is also impossible. This is our home, and the war has already taken too much from us.