Katashanka is a small village outside Kyiv, towards the Belarussian border. A community of about 5,000 people, this is the sort of place where everyone knows each other. It’s got a great community feel and is pretty self-contained. It is actually the place where Innovista Ukraine ran their very last leadership training session before the war started.
Just before the war came, the pastor of the local church said to us, “I will stay, come what may.” The Russian troops came, and he was true to his word. He stayed. Then Russian troops came and lived in his house, and kicked him out. He stayed around, until the Russian troops said that they would shoot him if he didn’t leave. So he moved down the road to stay with his parents. This is just one example of a leader who has demonstrated extraordinary courage in the face of enormous peril.
When the Russian troops arrived, they wanted to turn Katashanka into a launch site for what they planned to do next in the area. Their goal was occupation. One day, a local man and his wife were driving on the road out of town, when Russian troops put a rocket-propelled grenade through the window, and shot at the car. The man was killed instantly. His wife escaped with bad injuries. This is just one example of the trauma which the town has experienced again and again during the last three months. Supporting people as they come to terms with what has happened will be a long and complex process in the years ahead.
