A Ukrainian woman, and the dog she credits with saving her life, visit her devastated frontline town of Orikhiv, in the country's Zaporizhzhya region. Lubov Jarova helps distribute humanitarian aid to the few holdouts who refuse to leave despite enduring near-daily attacks.
Survivor Of Russian Air Strike Returns To Ukrainian Hometown Near Front
Lubov Jarova holds her dog, Victory, as she walks among the rubble of a school on September 7 in the frontline town of Orikhiv in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya region. Jarova credits her dog with saving her life.
Now in ruins, the school was operating as a distribution center for humanitarian aid when it was attacked.
Part of a missile next to a destroyed residential apartment building in Orikhiv
Jarova was working at the school when a Russian missile attack began. She ran outside after her dog, Victory, when the second strike occurred, destroying the building she had just left and killing seven people.
Orikhiv, located less than 10 kilometers from the nearest Russian Army position, previously had a population of 14,000.
People walk past the destroyed school building. Home to around 700 people, Orikhiv's citizens risk their lives enduring the near-daily missile and artillery attacks as they struggle to survive.
Though Lubov lives in Zaporizhzhya (around 65 kilometers northwest), she occasionally returns to bring humanitarian aid to those who remain in Orikhiv.