Retired in Ukraine: One Cheese, Two Chickens and a Dozen Eggs

Marina at her stall in the centre of Uzhgorod. Her $70 monthly pension, at the current exchange rate, forces her to sell flowers on the street to survive. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPSby Karlos Zurutuza (uzhgorod, ukraine)Tuesday, August 25, 2026Inter Press Service UZHGOROD, Ukraine, August 25 (IPS) - Marina says she does not particularly like her flowers, but that, “for some reason,” people buy them. In the centre of Uzhgorod, 800 kilometres southwest of Kyiv, this 75-year-old Ukrainian woman sells chrysanthemums, dahlias and gladioli on the pavement of central Voloshyna Street, all grown in the small garden at her home.“People take them for birthdays, weddings, for the cemetery… I can make up to 500 hryvnias, about $11 on a good day,” the elderly woman tells IPS on a morning when the mercury is nearing 40 degrees Celsius in western Ukraine.She never thought she would have to endure the elements to make a living, least of all at her age.Marina is one of hundreds of thousands of elderly women across the country forced to spend their days on the streets to survive. Data from the Pension Fund of Ukraine indicate that most pensioners receive between $60 and $100 a month.The figures simp...