Three bullets, two wars, one village

Russian ammunition boxes outside the detritus-strewn entrance to a school in Kamianka, outside of Izyum, Ukraine. — ©2023 The New York Times Company

THE woman pointed at a muddy, half-broken bucket, gesturing to a visitor to look inside. Her home had been destroyed after the Russians invaded in 2022 but she was pointing to detritus from the last war to sweep through this part of eastern Ukraine: shell casings from World War II.

“The tractor ploughs and the soil turns over and these are ploughed up,” she said, looking down at the recovered cartridges.