Arizona state university.
Judy: For the first time since
Russia's invasion of Ukraine,
the U.S. Secretary of defense
spoke with his Russian
counterpart today, calling for
an immediate cease-fire.
That is according to the
Pentagon.
Nearly three months into the
war, much of the focus is on the
eastern donbas, but there is a
southern front where Russia made
early gains.
The fighting continues in this
region, and as elsewhere, stuck
in the middle are families
struggling to stay united.
Nick schifrin reports from
southern Ukraine.
Nick: At a center for families
who fled their homes, the kids
are alright.
9-year-old kyrylo, his younger
brother, 8-year-old andriy, and
their baby sister in the pink
sweater, 6-year-old Anna.
The city created this play area
the day the war began.
The clothes they wear, the toys
they play with, the stuffed
animals that line the shelves,
all donated.
It's not home, but it's a space
where boys can be boys, and even
sit down when their mother
liliya tells them to.
How are your children doing
these days?
>> They're fine, thank god.
At first, they were stressed.
But then they got used to being
here, and now feel fine.
Nick: They feel fine thanks in
part to the center's
psychologist, lidiya
kuryatnykova.
She uses drawings to measure a
child's trauma.
>> Children mirror what their
parents feel.
If the parents are worried and
anxious, and show that, children
reflect it.
Nick: The parents arrive in
volodymyr zelenskyy's hometown
from nearby villages, needing
everything.
They're greeted with bags of
food, racks of clothes, and
boxes of shoes, organized by
size.
Oleksandr vilkul was appointed
mayor after the Russian
invasion.
In a side room, they sing a song
of longing, missing the homes
from which they fled.
What are they fleeing from?
>> The idp's who come here are
running from hell.
The information we received from
people in occupied territories,
executions, torture, and rape
are standard practice.
Today the Russians behave
themselves worse than Nazi
Germany during World War II.
Nick: That's what liliya and her
kids feared.
But her husband had to stay
behind.
>> I'm very worried about him.
But we have no way out of this
situation.
I don't know.
Nick: How difficult for you have
the last few weeks been?
>> That we are not together,
that our family isn't together.
This is very difficult.
We're used to being together all
the time, and the war has
separated us.
Nick: We decided to try and find
her husband.
We traveled 30 miles south, down
rutted roads.
The ukrainins bombed the nearby
bridge, so the only way in
is across the inhulets river.
On the other side, the kherson
region, most of which Russia
still occupies.
And waiting for us, liliya's
husband stanislav.
Stanislav and liliya both grew
up here in zahradivka.
Before the war, it had 800
residents.
Today, no more than 30.
>> A woman was killed in this
house.
She was in her yard and the grad
rocket hit there, and she got
killed.
Nick: In mid-march, Russian
troops in red seized the city of
kherson, and pushed right to the
edge of zahradivka.
They lobbed artillery, and
Ukrainian and Russian soldiers
traded small arms fire.
A Russian shell flew through the
roof of the school auditorium,
that three months ago was full
of children.
The family's farm is down the
road.
This is where his wife grew up,
where they moved in together
after they married,
the only home their children
have known.
As a couple, they've never spent
more than a day apart.
Stanislav wants to show me the
reason his family fled -- the
Russian rocket that landed in
their backyard.
And where were you where it
landed?
>> It was in the evening.
Approximately at 7:00 P.M.
I heard the sounds of the grad
rocket.
And I shouted.
Nick: The wall between the
impact site and the house where
his kids were eating, now
pierced by shrapnel.
>> I haven't seen them for a
month.
I don't have gas to go and see
them because the gas stations
are empty.
So I can't go there.
Immediately, the day after the
attack, I took them out of here,
and they haven't been back
since.
Nick: In the middle of their
property, where the family was
forced to hide.
So this is the cellar?
It's actually a food storage
turned shelter, with a
child-size, makeshift bed in the
corner.
They could always hear the
fighting above.
>> The bullets whistled by here.
It was scary.
We got really scared for our
kids.
Nick: He's collected all the
shrapnel that littered the farm,
some of which landed just in the
last few days.
So this is your home.
And inside the house, past the
window broken by shrapnel, is
his children's room.
The bunk beds krylyo and andrii
have shared since they were
born,
and their toys mixed in with
Anna's, untouched for a month.
>> It was always noisy here, and
now it's quiet.
Nick: Tell me about the future.
What do you hope for, your
future and your family's future?
>> I hope the victory will come
soon.
And that our family will be
together again.
This is my dream.
Nick: But for now it is a dream
deferred, and a family that
remains separated.
For the pbs newshour, I'm Nick
schifrin in zahradivka, Ukraine.
Judy: So hard to see.
And a note that our coverage of
the war in Ukraine is supported
in partnership with the pulitzer
center.