Tears and joy as Ukrainian couple divided by occupation meet again

KYIV — Larysa Ryndova hurried to see her husband as if they were going out on a first date — makeup on and perfume spritzed in the car. It was the first time she had laid eyes on 68-year-old Serhiy in 4-1/2 years — time he had spent trapped with others in the Russian-held town of Oleshky in southern Ukraine. "I can't believe you are here," Larysa, 72, kept repeating, her mascara smudged with tears after they embraced outside a hospital in Kyiv. "Honestly, I can't believe it myself," Serhiy replied. They last saw each other in 2022 when Larysa fled to England to live with their son, three months into the occupation following Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine. Serhiy stayed to look after the family home, ending up stuck in the town peppered with Russian-laid landmines and facing a mounting humanitarian crisis. "We hoped for better. Turned out, it got 'better'," he said sarcastically. Oleshky's residents described living through constant drone attacks and without power and heating. Things got even worse this spring, when food deliveries stopped. Serhiy got out on October 30 with hundr