by ZACK BADDORF

Larisa Pancheva sifts through boxes of second-hand clothing at an improvised refugee center in downtown Kiev, looking for a garment her size. She once had the clothing she needed. But in July 2014, her family fled from the war in eastern Ukraine, leaving everything behind.

“We were rich people,” Pancheva said. “We had shops but everything was bombed. Everything is ruined. We have nothing here.”

Volunteers provide clothing for Pancheva and other Ukrainians who fled the fighting. Elsewhere in Kiev, volunteers are putting in long hours making camouflage netting for tanks and snipers.

It’s illustrative of the war bringing people together — many of whom have direct relatives serving in the army.

Pancheva, 46, looks through the clothing as her 11-year-old son sits patiently nearby. Back at their temporary home in the capital’s suburbs, Pancheva’s husband is immobile.

He’s unable to work after an explosion seriously injured him in their hometown of Gorlovka, located in Ukraine’s war-torn Donetsk Oblast.

The Panchevas joined the ranks of nearly a million Ukrainians displaced by the conflict between pro-Russian separatists and government forces.

They now live rent-free in an austere dacha — or summer home — of a Ukrainian expatriate who is letting them stay there. There’s no running water, and they rely on a wood stove to keep warm.

“We made our choice and we moved here,” Pancheva said. “We can’t fight our fate. We just have to pray to God now. I thank God that we are safe.”