BLYZNIUKY — Only 15 kilometers separate the Ukrainian village of Blyzniuky from the territories under Russian occupation in the Donbas region. When Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, the local community fled the village en masse. But that trend has now been reversed, and Blyzniuky’s population is today five times larger than before the invasion — going from 1,000 to 5,000 inhabitants, 950 of which are children. It’s a consequence of the village’s strategic position, connecting the center of Ukraine and the Donbas, but also of a series of incentives put in place by the loca…