Long journey home: Stories from Mariupol

For those in areas occupied by Russia, each trip to Ukrainian territory becomes a complex journey. The only functioning border crossing between Ukraine and Belarus is a narrow corridor through which thousands of people try to reunite with their families.

After three years, Alina returned to her hometown of Mariupol. The city, once thriving with life, is completely different today. "The Mariupol I knew doesn't exist anymore," Alina tells Deutsche Welle. Moscow annexed these territories in 2022.

To see her parents, Alina traveled through Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, and Russia. The five-day journey cost her about 750 dollars. She recalls a Russian border official asking, "Why don't you want to stay in Russia?"

When asked about her parents, she responds briefly, ""They're surviving." Forced to adapt to new conditions, they are barely making ends meet. Her mother works in a hair salon, and her father is a construction worker.

Seventy-year-old Ljubow decided to visit her children and grandchildren, who live in Odessa. The Ukrainian woman comes from a village near Mariupol. After three years of separation, she decided for the first time to leave the occupied territories.

Before the war, the trip took her a few hours by bus. Now, the detour through Russia, Belarus, and the European Union countries takes two days, with costs amounting to 320 dollars. She had to walk the last two miles.

"Thank God our border guards put my suitcase on a cart," she says in an interview with a Deutsche Welle reporter.

Ljubow admits she has a Russian passport, but out of necessity. Her pension of 170 dollars is her only source of income, which isn't enough to cover basic needs. The cost of coal for the winter is 420 dollars, forcing her to go hungry and save for three months. "I haven't got anyone there anymore," she admits.