PECHENIHY, Ukraine—Pechenihy is a village of bombed-out homes and drab, Soviet-era mid-rise apartments amid pine forests and fields of black, fertile soil. At the beginning of the war, Russian forces occupied the settlements across the river from Pechenihy. Half of the village’s population fled; those who remained lived under constant shelling for over six months. Pechenihy resident Oksana Drozdova and her two young sons left their home behind in March 2022 for Schmallenberg, a town in western