Dmytro waited near Ukraine’s border with Belarus, watching for the bus carrying his wife. He had not seen Larisa for 1,711 days. When they finally met on October 31, he held her tightly and kissed her again and again.
Larisa was among hundreds evacuated from occupied Oleshky during a temporary ceasefire. The journey took evacuees through Crimea, Russia, and Belarus before they crossed into Ukrainian-held territory. Medical teams were waiting to help people who had endured severe shortages of food and medicine.
The reunion did not erase those years or the difficulties ahead. But for this couple, both 54, separation had ended. As the buses continued onward, people lined the road waving Ukrainian flags to welcome the arrivals.
