KIM BARKER AND OLEKSANDRA MYKOLYSHYN

New York Times

NEAR PAVLOHRAD, Ukraine — The children's author had violence in her heart.

Valentyna Shevchenko, 69, recently fled the home where she had lived for 21 years, a home now threatened by a new Russian offensive. And she was angry about the meeting in Alaska between President Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

"It's not right that the presidents of two other countries discuss our fate without us," said Shevchenko, who clasped like talismans two poetry books she had written − one was titled "A Wonderful Adventure" − while sitting on the edge of her bed in a shelter.

She added that she would like to beat the two leaders with a wooden stick, or even a shovel.

"This is insane," she said. "Here there is war, rivers of blood, and th

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