NOVOSELYDIVKA: As dawn broke, Ganna Fesenko donned her flak jacket and clambered into her armoured van. And so begins another normal day for the postwoman doing her rounds in war-torn eastern Ukraine.

Fesenko works for Ukraine’s postal service and admitted she still gets scared even after two years of delivering to frontline towns and villages. “Every time I go, I’m very aware that I might not come back,” Fesenko said.

That was the case late last month when a postwoman was killed by a drone in the Kharkiv region where Russian forces launched a surprise offensive. Since the Kremlin launched its invasion in February 2022, four Ukrposhta employees have been killed and four injured on duty.

Fesenko accepts the risk because she believes her work in her native industrial region of Donetsk — devastated by brutal warfare — is vital.

Fasenko doesn’t just deliver letters and parcels. She also brings precious pension and social payments, medicines and groceries. “Someone has to do it. People are waiting for us,” the 39-year-old said.

“In frontline towns, they’re left behind.” At the first stop of the day, around a dozen elderly locals rushed towards the van as it pulled up to the central square in the village of Novoselydivka. “We waited and waited for you!” one woman told Fesenko.

“But we’re not late,” she replied with a smile before setting out newspapers, coffee, pasta and biscuits for people to buy.

The pensioners exchanged jokes and news with Fasenko. She is sometimes greeted as a saviour and sometimes as a punching bag for their foul tempers. They have no one else to vent to, she explained, conceding that in these moments she wants to “leave everything”.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2024