Emile Ducke

When Russian troops moved into eastern Ukraine, some began to travel westward, filled with doubt about the future but saying they planned — or hoped — to return.

In a largely abandoned apartment complex on the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, the people who stayed behind find comfort in their surroundings and each other.

“My children left, but I don’t want to. I warm myself with an electric heater when there is power,” Alyona Kovalyova said.

The oldest Ukrainians whose towns have been bombarded and overrun by Russia’s invasion have memories of similar miseries at the hands of Nazi Germany in World War II.

As they evacuated from the fighting in Ukraine, the passengers already thought of what they left behind.