In Marshyntsi, Kotylevo, and Cherlenivka people once again collected money via WhatsApp groups, bought gravel, rented a grader, and filled the potholes on the road to Novoselytsia themselves. The whole village worked together so they could at least get through until spring.
“If we wait for Ukravtodor or the regional administration, we won’t survive until summer,” says Cherlenivka district head Oleksandr Rotar.
Thanks to the caring Bukovinians who, for the fifth time, saved winter with their own hands.
And just a few dozen kilometers across the border, in that part of historical Bukovina where similar villages welcome winter with Christmas markets instead of repairing state roads, residents have long forgotten what it’s like to collect money for asphalt — there the state takes care of roads on time and properly, and life flows smoothly, like the Prut River on a clear day, without a single pothole of “lawlessness” under the wheels.
