https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/31/ukraine-volunteers-saving-kharkiv-war-charred-woodland
Yuriy Bengus, a biologist, surveyed a scene of destruction. The Zhuravli forest, on the northern edge of Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, was a blackened mess. Rooks cawed from burned pine trees and hopped between stumps. A dead bird lay in an abandoned military dugout. War was down the road. From somewhere to the north of Kharkiv came a muffled boom
Bengus plunged his spade into the sandy earth. “From an ecological point of view, oaks are most suitable,” he said. His assistant, Yulia Kucherevska, a 16-year-old volunteer, reached into a plastic bag, pulling out three acorns that she tossed into a shallow hole. The pair moved on to the next spot and threw in three more. Behind them a No 16 tram rattled past.
What about the risk from bombs? “We’ve got used to it. We’ve adapted. I refuse to be terrified. Everyone is doing what they do. In our case that’s planting oaks. I believe Kharkiv has a future,”
by surfratmark