UKRAINE LIBERATED TOWN OF TROSTIANETS IN THE EAST FROM RUSSIAN CONTROL

A resident of Trostyanets pushes a bicycle through the rubble of the city. A resident of Trostyanets pushes a bicycle through the rubble of the city. Foto: Efrem Lukatsky / AP Two men slowly walk toward each other in the frigid wind, before recognizing each other and embracing in tears. "You’re alive!?" More and more men and women are beginning to emerge and wander through their own city as though it was completely foreign to them. Some are weeping as they view the destruction – the half-demolished buildings and burned-out factories. Others are crying in relief – relief that they have survived. That they are once again able to meet up with friends and family members from other parts of the city.For the first time in a month, people were once again able to emerge last Sunday from their homes and basements in Trostyanets, finally able to believe that the nightmare had actually come to an end. The Russian troops had suddenly withdrawn on the last remaining passable road toward Russia on Friday afternoon – after having marched into this spa town of 20,000 residents in eastern Ukraine and occupied it on the very first day of the war. All telephones in town went dead, as did the cellular network, and walking through town had become a potentially deadly undertaking. Many simply waited at home, huddled in the candlelight as their rations slowly disappeared, not knowing what was happening in the rest of the country – or even just a couple hundred meters down the road.