“After the fire burned down our home, we moved here, where no one’s lived for 30 years,” Olexandr Nilovko, a disabled former police officer, tells me as he lies in bed.
He’s referring to events last September in the area around Luhansk, Ukraine, when forest fires broke out in the war-torn region’s forest, and affected its small villages, including his home of Muratove. In total, the fires killed 17 people and left 600 homes in ruins.
“The smoke was blowing over our garden,” Nilovko continues. “Everyone watched it for two days. Then I remember hearing a crack, I turned my head and a tree was on fire outside my window.”
