Simferopol is the Crimean capital that Sergey Sergeyich travels to when Aisylu asks him to seek information about Akhtem from the FSB. It is both a practical destination and a political threshold: Sergeyich is treated as an outsider who has been admitted to Russia for humanitarian reasons, even as Aisylu hopes that his Donbas origins might make officials more willing to speak with him. His visit exposes the limits of that hope, while the road out of the city later turns his attention back to home, friendship, and the uncertain fate of Petro.

The journey to the capital

Aisylu makes the request at a meal, speaking quietly and explaining that she would be turned away at the door, whereas Sergeyich, a Russian from Donbas in her understanding, might be received as one of the officials’ own. The appeal is not abstract: she wants him to ask about Akhtem and believes they will tell Sergeyich the truth. The other family members watch for his response. He feels a physical fear that briefly leaves him unable to act, then recognizes that it is passing. His answer unsettles the identity on which the request rests: he says that he is Ukrainian, not Russian.

The trip nevertheless goes ahead. Bekir drives Sergeyich toward the Crimean capital, and on the Sevastopol highway they join a dense stream of traffic moving toward Simferopol. The convoy soon slows to a crawl. A lorry is ahead of them; behind them, a jeep carries a Chinese jet ski on a trailer. Sergeyich sees the vehicle and asks whether this is the way to the sea. Bekir explains the roads onward from Sevastopol, including routes toward Foros and Yalta and a turn toward Kacha. The everyday traffic and familiar holiday destinations provide a sharp counterpoint to the purpose of their journey: Sergeyich is on his way to ask the authorities about a missing man.

The FSB address

Once in the city, Sergeyich walks toward the institution alone. His first steps are uncertain; he coughs, fears that he might speak unwisely, and watches the trees beside the pavement as though they were moving with him. He stops to check his perception, regains his composure, and continues with more confidence. The narration makes progress visible through this small change: the lime trees and acacias seem to fall behind as he advances toward his goal.

The destination is a broad, low building at 13 Ivan Franko Boulevard, extending sideways beneath a red-and-white exterior. Sergeyich pauses on the steps. The flimsy plastic doors open, and a man in a grey suit carrying a folder passes him and disappears down the street. Sergeyich then enters and finds himself face to face with an armed uniformed man, who asks what he needs. The contrast between the imposing purpose of the visit and the building’s inexpensive doors, along with Sergeyich’s hesitation at its entrance, makes the approach feel less like a straightforward inquiry than a crossing into an institution whose authority he cannot control.

A visitor under scrutiny

The conversation with Ivan Fyodorovich quickly turns from Akhtem to Sergeyich’s own position. Asked about his side and the separatists, Sergeyich begins to explain that Petro simply lives in the contested area, then stops when he realizes the answer could disclose something unwelcome. He redirects the discussion and asks why he is being interrogated. Ivan Fyodorovich denies that it is an interrogation, calling it a conversation, but points to a monitor Sergeyich cannot see. Its record identifies him as admitted for humanitarian reasons, and the official warns him to watch his words lest he be accused of ingratitude.

Sergeyich answers that he is not complaining, keeps to himself, and looks after his bees. The official tells him he may stay, but for no longer than ninety days. On Akhtem, he offers no account of what happened: he tells Sergeyich to have Akhtem’s widow speak to the police and says the case concerns either Crimean Self-Defence or the Cossacks. The response redirects the search rather than resolving it. Simferopol thus becomes the place where Sergeyich’s hope of using presumed common identity encounters an official classification of him as a foreigner, subject to a time limit and a warning about what he says.

The road back toward home

Later, as dusk falls, Sergeyich begins climbing toward the apiary, preparing to move his hives. His thoughts leave Albat and return to Little Starhorodivka, Pashka, and Petro. He imagines driving the familiar roads back through the checkpoints into the grey zone, but remembers that Petro has not answered his last two or three one-word texts. He concludes that Petro may have been killed. The thought weighs on him and makes the climb difficult; thinking instead of Pashka restores his breath and steadies his walk.

Looking back at Albat, Sergeyich recognizes that ordinary life continues there, with both good and bad events, and that it is a life one might grow accustomed to. Little Starhorodivka also continues, though in a diminished form familiar to him: he and Pashka remain, shops and mail are gone, and fresh bread is available only when Pashka’s separatist friends bring it from Karuselino or Pashka fetches it himself. The contrast does not make the return easy or secure. Simferopol marks one stage of Sergeyich’s displacement, while his thoughts of the roads home reveal the pull of a familiar life that persists under wartime conditions, shadowed by uncertainty over whether Petro is still alive.