A woman lives alone in a Donetsk town – level 2

03-07-2025 07:00

Galina Nevinnaya lives alone in Maryinka, a destroyed town in Ukraine. She left during the fighting in 2022 after getting hurt and trapped in a basement. Soldiers helped her escape.

Now, almost three years later, she is the only person to return. Her town once had 10,000 people, but most are away now. Her mother died in the war in April 2022.

Galina is fixing her house, which was badly damaged. She says NATO rockets caused some of it, but this is not proven. She gets water from a well and finds food by herself. When a reporter asked her why she returned, she said, ‘He who lives in his own home lives well.’

In 2023, Russia said Maryinka was under its control, but many countries don’t agree. Galina’s life shows how hard the war is.

Difficult words: trapped (unable to move or escape from a place or situation), proven (tested or shown to be true), well (a deep hole for water).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.

What proverb did Galina invoke to explain why she chose to return and live in her damaged house?

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