Like thousands of senior citizens in Ukraine, Zinaida Gyrenko was spending the sunset years of her life in a shelter, her retirement upended by Russia's invasion.

Her memory was foggy but the moment Russia struck her village in the northeast of the country, sending her sprawling, was crystal clear.

"It was so loud. Everyone fell to the ground. I was lying there. Then I opened my eyes again, and I thought: I'm still alive," Gyrenko, born in 1939, told AFP.

The invasion launched by the Kremlin more than three years ago has disproportionately affected Ukraine's seniors.

A quarter of Ukraine's people are older than 60, but they accounted for nearly half of civilian deaths near the front last year, according to the United Nations.

The elderly are often the last to leave frontline territories, saying they lack money or strength to relocate -- or the will to part with their homes.

Gyrenko lived in the village of Zaoskillya in the eastern Kharkiv region until last May. Russia has been advancing on the nearby town of Kupiansk further........

© International Business Times