NOVOKATOVSK, Transnistria — In this tiny, hardscrabble village that could easily be mistaken for the fictional Anatevka in “Fiddler on the Roof,” farmer Or Cohen, 35, lives with his wife, Anya, and their 3-year-old son Adam, in a 100-year-old house built of clay.

In the backyard, Cohen raises chickens, turkeys and vegetables, while Anya, 31, works remotely for an Israeli startup developing online platforms for genetic testing. For extra income, they’ve fixed up a guest room to accommodate the occasional tourist adventurous enough to end up in this outpost of civilization less than 300 meters from the Ukrainian border.

“Just a few nights ago, we could hear the Russians bombing Odesa, and on the Telegram app, we saw they were ordering people into shelters,” said Cohen, a former taxi driver

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