A resident of Irpen was in the city during the occupation. For more than a month he hid in garages. There was no water, electricity and communication and heat. The man was at the epicenter of hostilities and miraculously survived.
Photo: Ukraine. Irpin 2022
Lyudmila lives a few kilometers from the capital. Around the village is an ancient forest. Roe deer, wild boars, hares, foxes, deer are found there, in autumn there are many white mushrooms. Nice resort place.
On February 24, the Russians began to bomb the airport in Gostomel. Lyudmila received a call from her daughter from Ozerny and said that the war had begun and that she and her child were sitting in the basement. Lyudmila went outside and heard the neighbors talking. The neighbor used to be a skydiving instructor. He stood on the roof and said to someone — «25 — Mi 8, 30 people each, the first went, the second went, the third …» And when the neighbor said the third, the woman realized that he considered the downed. She saw an explosion in the distance and smoke billowed out.
A few months before the war, Lyudmila’s husband died due to the coronavirus. For her, it was a strong shock, the woman was in a deep depression. Life seems to have stopped. When the war began, she wanted to stay in her home. People began to leave the village. Every night a terrible, but in some way exciting spectacle began. The whole sky was in crimson, tracer lights. It was impossible to tear myself away from this spectacle.
By March 7, heavy fighting began. When the Russians entered the village, the woman was afraid that they would find out about her grandson, who was in the ranks of the TRO. At night she decided to leave. She is with her neighbor drove with the headlights off. Everything around exploded. They still managed to escape from Pushcha Voditsa. Until April, Lyudmila was evacuated. Returning home, she saw that the village was in great destruction. Neighbors told her that the streets were littered with the bodies of Russian soldiers.
Houses are broken, people live in sheds, summer kitchens. Of the 500 houses, 120 remained suitable for habitation in the village. Instead of houses, ruins and conflagrations. After the de-occupation, the remains of civilians were found, whose identity was established using a DNA test. The elderly did not want to leave the house, and met their death there.
Lyudmila’s house was damaged, the shell broke through two walls. TThe concrete cover rose from behind the explosion and fell on the fence. Against the background of other destruction, the woman does not feel injured. The neighbor collects a collection of shells that destroyed the village. Lyudmila plans to replenish his collection and give him the shells that damaged her house.
Photo: Ukraine. Pushcha Voditsa 2022.
n 1988, after the earthquake in Armenia, Vladimir received an apartment in a multi-storey building in Irpin. He worked as a security guard at the local market. In the spring of 2022, Russian troops invaded the city. The wife was evacuated, and Vladimir flatly refused to leave. He continued to guard the market along with his partner Misha and a three-legged dog. In mid-March, Russian troops began bombing the city. Incendiary shells flew to the Irpin market, which could not be extinguished. Vladimir suggests that they were phosphorus bombs. They tried to extinguish them, then they flared up with renewed vigor. Then Vladimir with a partner and a dog ran to the other end of the market, lay down on the floor and trembled with fear. It was hot as in an oven, in three hours the entire construction market burned down. Returning home, Vladimir heard an explosion, flowerpots fell from the windowsill. The rocket hit a nearby entrance and destroyed several floors.
Photo: Ukraine. Irpin 2022.
Olga lives in Gorenka. The village is located on the outskirts of Kyiv At 3 o’clock in the afternoon, a massive shelling began and stopped only in the morning. The explosions shook the ground. The woman was worried about the Ukrainian military, their positions were nearby. Olga went to the threshold of the house and saw that planes and helicopters were flying from the direction of Belarus, there were so many of them that the sky seemed to have darkened.
Olga decided to evacuate. Between the shelling, they went by car through Puscha-Voditsa and got into a traffic jam for many hours. People were worried that they were a target for bombing, they were afraid that Russia would start bombing columns of cars. Olga and her son arrived in Gorenka after the de-occupation. When they returned, they saw a broken city, the destroyed houses of their neighbors, Olga was horrified by what had happened. After the attack of the invaders, according to the UN, the village was destroyed by seventy-seven percent.
Photo: Ukraine. Moshchun 2022.
When fighting began in Irpen, Vera wanted to leave the city. She came to the railway station and witnessed how a Russian helicopter fired at a train with passengers. People rushed in all directions. Vera stayed in the city and was in a bomb shelter. There were many bedridden patients, old people who could not leave. She helped as best she could, changed diapers, fed the sick. Volunteers brought the essentials, but when heavy fighting began, there was a shortage of medicines and the woman went out onto the streets of the city to stock up on the necessary. Vera survived powerful bombings and battles in Irpin.
On March 24, the Ukrainian military saw Vera on the street and decided to save her. He evacuated to the bridge and began heavy shelling. There, Vera saw a car with shot people, it became creepy. The woman ran and was wounded in the leg, falling injured her hands, knocked out two teeth, there was a mouthful of earth. Volunteers grabbed the woman and took her to Kyiv to the hospital. Returning after the de-occupation, Vera saw that the studio in which she worked was shot and looted.
Photo: Ukraine. Irpin 2022.
The woman, along with her relatives, walked out of the occupied Borodianka. Returning home after the de-occupation, she saw traces of Russian soldiers. The Russians were in her apartment, sleeping in the basement of the house. The windows in her apartment are broken and there is a lot of water on things. Rain poured in through the broken windows. The woman’s house is damaged, there is not a single surviving building nearby.
Photo: Ukraine. Borodyanka 2022.
Maya lives in Irpin. In March, Russian troops shelled her city. Three shells hit the woman’s house, a strong fire started. The Finnish building quickly burned down. Running out into the street, Maya managed to grab a sheet, wrapped herself in it and stood in the middle of the road. The weather was freezing, it was February. Maya was taken in by neighbors. That evening, three more neighboring houses burned down. Neighbors helped to leave for Lvov. In the summer, the woman returned to Irpin and lives in a refugee settlement. A 92-year-old woman says: — I miss my home. Maya grew Ukrainian tobacco flowers, roses, and lilies. Sometimes she comes to her yard and digs up flowers to give to her neighbors.
Photo: Ukraine. Irpin 2022.
In his younger years, Vasily worked at a radio factory in Kyiv. When the man got married, he moved to Irpin. Three daughters were born on the same day — the fourth of June. The first was born in 1981, and the twins in 1986. Vasily was the liquidator of the Chernobyl accident. I lost my leg due to diabetes.
When a large-scale offensive began, two daughters with their children left for Novodnestrovsk to live with their older sister. They asked Vasily to go with them: «- Dad, let’s go, let’s go.» The man refused.
Vasily and his wife had everything they needed to survive in difficult conditions for a long time: barbecue, firewood, water, plenty of food. In early March, electricity, gas and water went out. The house became cold. The temperature dropped to four degrees. They slept in their clothes, huddled close to each other. Not far from them is the academy. There, volunteers prepared meals and at that time turned on the generator. Neighbors went to the academy to charge their phones. Sometimes they called Vasily’s daughters to tell them that their parents were alive.
The shelling of the city began. During the shelling, a neighbor was wounded in the thigh by a shrapnel, and two familiar guys died near the store. There were no burials in the cemetery at that time. In a remote part of Irpin, a mass grave was dug, and everyone was taken there.
When Svetlana heard the shelling, she clutched her head, in a panic she looked for shelter.She was especially afraid when planes were flying low. Terrible thing.
Vasily did not try to hide during the shelling. You can’t run far in a wheelchair, you can’t hide. If there was electricity, then he could have climbed into the house on a lift. The mechanism is simple, the button is pressed and rises. And without electricity, in order to get into the house, you had to put on a prosthetic leg, climb the stairs, and then remove the prosthesis. While you put your leg on, while you take it off — a lot of time. He sat, counting the shells flying through him, vzhzh went, vzhzhzh went.
One day, Vasily saw a convoy of Russian military vehicles walking along a nearby street. The man counted 14 APCs. They passed, then returned, and then it became audible how the Ukrainians were hitting their convoy.
A man died in the next five-story building. He lay three days on the balcony. The wife could not bury him on her own and evacuated. On March 15, residents of the house called volunteers and asked for help with the burial. They arrived and buried the man’s body under the house. People told the volunteers that a disabled person lives nearby.
Volunteers drove up to Vasily’s house. They asked: «- Half an hour will be enough for you to get ready, because today is the last trip, we will not come again. Tomorrow the liberation of Irpen will begin.» Vasily replied: «We’ll have time.» While Svetlana was collecting medicines, the volunteers grabbed the stroller with Vasily and carried it to the bus, they didn’t even have time to put on a jacket. The dogs had to be released from the enclosure.
The path of life was one. Get to the broken bridge and cross the masonry from the boards through the cold, seething stream. Vasily was carried on a stretcher across the river. Svetlana dragged things and a leg — a prosthesis. The military saw a large bundle on the woman and asked: «Why do you have a grenade launcher ?!»
Having crossed the river, they arrived at the station and then on the train to my daughter. They rode in the vestibule of the carriage. Vasily was sitting in a stroller, and his wife Svetlana and her brother were on linen bags.
They returned to Irpin in June. With joyful barking, the dogs greeted their owners. Neighbor houses were damaged, some burned down completely. The house of Vasily and Svetlana survived.
Photo: Ukraine. Irpin 2022.
The widower Yuri lives near the old forest in the holiday village «Pushcha-Voditsa». Everything in the house is made by Yuriy’s hands, on the veranda there is furniture of his own making.
After the Russian offensive, not a single whole house remained in the village. All buildings were damaged to varying degrees. If the walls and roof of the house survived, then the locals consider themselves lucky.
In early March, a neighbor came to Yuri and said, «Come to me, your mother-in-law has cooked soup, we’ll eat and we’ll leave. Heavy shelling has begun.»
Yuri prepared for the evacuation, left gold, money, documents on the table. And went to a neighbor at the end of the street. A short Russian soldier with a white bandage on his sleeve came out of the forest and commanded: «Hands up!» The man raised his hands and heard: «Lie down!». Yuri has sciatica, so he slowly began to sit down and suddenly heard shots. The bullet hit the arm, heel and thigh, miraculously did not hit the vital organs. Due to a wound in the leg, a double fracture was obtained.
The neighbor, meanwhile, was standing in the courtyard of his house and heard everything. Yuri shouted to him: «- Seryozha wounded me!». The Russian military yelled to his people: «There’s a second one, there’s a second one, we’re working!» and the machine-gun burst was heard again.
Neighbor Sergei shouted: «Ivanovich, I can’t get out of the yard, you need to crawl.» Under aimed fire, the man crawled to the corner of the fence, and he was dragged by the hood into the yard. Yuri lost consciousness.He woke up already in the house and saw a neighbor tearing a sheet into ribbons for bandaging. The hole on the arm was huge, the wound on the heel unfolded. When the neighbor and his mother-in-law were rewinding the wounds, the soldiers came into the house and commanded: «Hands up.» Sergei, mother-in-law and grandfather raised their hands. The Russians asked: «Are there military men?» Then they said: «On your knees.» Grandfather says: «I can’t after a stroke, I won’t get up later.» The Russians walked around the house, looked everywhere and forbade the residents to go out into the street, they said: «We’ll check it,» but they didn’t go in again.
For a week, Yuri did not get out of bed, he ate almost nothing. The street where the men lived was between two fires. On the one hand, the Ukrainian troops held the defense, on the other hand, the Russians covered the mortars with fire, hurricanes, cluster shells. There was no connection. Sergey made crutches for Yuri from two boards, attached holders made of choppers to them so that he could move around. Due to the lack of antibiotics, the wounds festered, they were washed with chamomile, potassium permanganate, and furatsilin.
One day a Russian group came into Sergey’s yard. YYuri counted 32 people, good uniforms, ammunition and grenade launchers for each. 3 people entered the house and saw a bottle of vodka in the corridor. «- And what do you have, gorilka? Can I try it?»
Sergei replied: «- If I say no, you will drink anyway.» The soldiers drank a few glasses: — Oh, good! The third glass was drunk for the dead comrades. Two left, and the eldest remained and went up to the wounded Yuri and said: «Grandfather, I’m sorry. It’s not we who are fighting, it’s our government that is fighting.» Yuri replied: «So you are here, not the government.» The Russian answered «We are on orders!», turned around and left. If they had known that they would come in, they would have poisoned the vodka.
They survived as best they could. There was no bread. They made shortbreads such as fritters, soup, canned food. In mid-March, frost hit, it was down to -10. There was no electricity, it was cold, we lived in jackets. And at that time there were heavy shelling, to the point of impossibility. There was nowhere to hide. Sergei went to the toilet in the yard, a mine exploded and shrapnel wounded him in the arm and inguinal cavity. There were two wounded in the house. Sergei became worse, inflammation began. His mother-in-law took care of him. Yuri prayed: «Mother of God, but there are no hopeless situations, get us out of here. There is always a way out.»
On March 20, Yuri made a flag, took a stick, attached a white rag to it and hobbled to the end of the street on boards — crutches. He waved a white flag until a local resident, Ivan, noticed him. Yuri told him that they were wounded and that the four of them lived with the elderly.
On March 23, the Ukrainian military drove the Russians out and came to Sergei’s house. They told the tenants: «We’re leaving quickly.» When the military saw Yuri on makeshift crutches, they said: “No, grandfather, you will walk slowly, you can’t do that.” From their wheelbarrow, in which anti-tank mines were collected, they unloaded everything, put Yuri in a wheelbarrow and drove him to the bus. On the bus, slowly along the forest, to the highway and at full speed to the Kiev hospital. He went out on homemade crutches — boards and lit a cigarette. The boys began to laugh: «Grandfather, what is this?» . «- How is that? Crutches!» . So he forgot them there for joy, and then there are cigarettes. Yuri didn’t smoke for 20 days, why did he start?
First of all, they washed, the smell was terrible, everything was bloody. But they didn’t take anything with them, the nurses brought new clothes: shorts, T-shirts. Sergei went into inflammation of the peritoneum, he underwent surgery, and Yuri recovered and on March 31 he was discharged.
Yuri returned to the village and saw that the neighboring houses had burned down, the second floor in his house was destroyed. Traces of the stay of the Russian military are visible, all valuables, money and a portrait of the deceased wife have disappeared. Yuri is restoring the house, roses are breaking through the rubble. Life goes on. The tendon on the hand still does not work, but the hatchet, the hammer can be held. The main thing is to keep a glass of vodka to drink for victory!
Photo: Ukraine. Pushcha-Voditsa 2022.
During the occupation, Valentina and her neighbor stayed in the holiday village of Pushcha-Voditsa. They couldn’t take the animals out and didn’t want to leave them. Nobody thought that they would bomb. The shelling was continuous, it was impossible to go to the toilet.
The neighbors have all left. The two women sat in the basement in total darkness. They were afraid to break the silence, once again they did not move, they were silent. Sometimes they went out into the street and saw smoke rising into the sky from the side of Kyiv, Irpen. The way to the village was closed by the military, even volunteers were not allowed. There was no electricity or communication. Women were cut off from the rest of the world and did not know what was happening around. Meanwhile, their children did not lose hope that their relatives were alive. The women survived the heavy shelling and saw how, one by one, the neighboring houses were burning.
Once Valentina went outside and saw the military, with white bandages on their hands. They stood with their backs, the woman decided to call them. Suddenly, a shepherd dog jumped out of a neighboring, burned-out house and knocked Valentina off her feet, the military, frightened by the dog, retreated further. Valentina believes that the dog saved her life, as she later learned that the Russian military wore white armbands.
The women were waiting for the moment to leave. On March 8, after three in the morning, Valentina realized that the shelling had stopped. A firefight began with single shells. After two weeks of fighting, there was a gap to escape. The women decided to act, came out of hiding and saw in the dark military men with yellow bands on their sleeves. Turning to them, we realized that they were Ukrainian soldiers. The military did not know that someone had remained in the village, they were surprised: «Where did you come from?».
Valentina asked them: «How can we get out of the village?» This was not possible and the soldiers replied: «We don’t know.» Valentina decided to go by her car. The garage was littered with bricks and debris from a bombed-out house. They cleared the exit from the garage and drove off.
The women moved towards Kyiv, and their village was burning behind. Valentina drove the car by touch, because of the constant presence in the basement, her eyesight fell. The neighbor held a white sheet of paper near the windshield. She wanted to race as fast as possible, but the soldiers advised me to drive slowly, with emergency lights on. On the way to Kyiv, women were constantly stopped by the military at checkpoints.
After the de-occupation, the son returned to the village, he found and fed the dog, took the cats to Kyiv. The cats were under stress. One cat lost the ability to move. Valentina’s son saw a herd of wild boars come out of the gate, and the earth was dug up in the yard. Wild animals grew bolder and began to come from the forest to the village. Neighbors joke: «Don’t worry, sappers don’t need to be called now, so there are no mines.»
When Valentina returned home, she saw that a third of the house had been destroyed. Everything in the house is broken with fragments, there is not a single whole glass.
Valentina discovered that Russian soldiers lived in the house. They warmed up food in a decorative fireplace and all the smoke went into the house. Thank God the house didn’t burn down. The Russians drank all the alcohol that was in the bottles, but left an open bottle of wine, they were afraid that the wine was poisoned. Valentina found a book called «Big Book of Russia» in the room. The Russians left their topographic maps with the central regions of Ukraine. In all maps, one road was drawn through Kyiv. All ways through Kyiv.
Photo: Ukraine. Pushcha-Voditsa 2022.
The building on Yablonskaya was built during the Cold War and was equipped with a bomb shelter that meets the standards of the Soviet era. When the Russian offensive began, local residents of Bucha began to flock there from all over the area. They brought food and water with them. In early March, the Russians occupied the city. There were more than 80 people in the bomb shelter. They slept in turns, on the floor, chairs and armchairs. The ventilation system in the basement did not work and it was very stuffy. On the upper floors of the building, several people with a dog remained, they did not want to go down. One day, people saw from the window how Russian soldiers took the men around the corner of the building and shot them. The bodies of the executed lay on the street for a whole month. Subsequently, the video, where the Russians lead a line of people with their hands raised behind their heads — to be shot, spread around the world.
The Russians entered the building on the third of March. They were told that there were people in the bunker. The military opened the first metal door with a grinder, but they could not open the second one.
The soldiers wanted those who were inside to open themselves. People did not succumb to persuasion and orders, then the Russians sent locals to persuade the negotiators to open the bunker.
People in the bomb shelter were afraid and crying, they thought that the Russians would come in and shoot everyone. Some of them said: let’s open it, this is a chance for salvation, you won’t stay in a bomb shelter for a long time, there is poor ventilation, water and food will soon run out. Decided to open by voting. The soldiers took several people out of the bomb shelter, after which no one saw them. A woman with three children screamed and cried: «- You took my husband!» . He never returned to the basement, he was probably shot. The Russians brought new people into the bomb shelter. There were about 130 people, including children. People sat and stood in a dark, stuffy bunker. On March 7, the Russians released the captives, Andrei was among them. The building with the bunker became the headquarters for the Russians.
Andrey wanted to go towards Irpin, but people advised not to go there, there were fierce battles. He decided to go towards Nemeshaevo. On Yablonskaya, Andrei saw a shot ambulance, a dead cyclist lay on the road. Half of the torso lay near the Warsaw market. On the way out of Bucha, the man saw a Russian checkpoint. There was an armored personnel carrier with the military. The Russian soldiers ordered him to hand over the phone. The man took out his phone and pressed the button to unlock it.
At that moment, a car jumped out of Bucha, the soldiers opened fire on it. They turned around and shot the man in the head. The military thought that Andrei was deliberately distracting them. The man dodged and fell. The Russians thought they had killed him and fled in an APC. Andrei was wounded, lay down for a couple of minutes, got up and wandered over the fence back to Bucha, to Yablonskaya Street. He was bleeding and losing strength. Andrei went into someone’s house and wanted to ask the residents for help, to bandage his wounds. But there was no one in the house. I found a first aid kit, drank an antibiotic, washed the wounds. The first bullet pierced the shoulder, the second bullet was removed from under the ribs, a month after the de-occupation of Bucha.
Russian soldiers lived in neighboring houses, and fired at Irpen from the courtyard of the house where Andrei was. During the shelling, the house trembled, and the wounded Andrei trembled, he was afraid that he would be seen and killed. The man remained in the house until the end of the occupation, then he was taken to the hospital and operated on.
Photo: Ukraine. Bucha 2022.
Victoria and Ivan have been married for 37 years. They live in the holiday village of Pushcha-Voditsa, a dream for any city dweller. There is a sprawling birch grove around the house, and an old forest across the road. Victoria loves flowers and near the house she built an alpine slide. Roses and a tree of happiness grow there. Ivan is a master of his craft, he is a well-known carpenter in the capital. During a large-scale offensive, the village was deserted, the neighbors dispersed, and Victoria and Ivan remained. They could not leave the house, the large library and the animals.
On March 12, during an infantry attack, two Russian soldiers were killed near Victoria’s house. After that, the Russians began to cover the entire district with shells. They bombed with particular cruelty, the positions of the Ukrainian military were nearby. The roof of Victoria was destroyed, part of the house collapsed. In the bedroom, the wall was blown out by the explosion and the hail projectile was stuck in the double brickwork. This saved the lives of Victoria and Ivan. Continuous, fierce shelling began. Ivan decided to hide his wife in a safe. Prior to that, he kept a precious collection of match labels there.
Victoria sat in a metal safe, and her husband behind a bookcase in the corner. During the bombing, you don’t know whether a shell will cover you or fly by. Every minute could be the last. She remembered everything that she wanted to say before and did not have time, her emotions aggravated. In everyday life, you don’t feel like that, all some business, but in the face of the threat of death, you think about the main thing, about life, happy minutes and love.
Shells were flying overhead, Victoria was sitting in a narrow, iron safe. The woman wanted to hug Ivan, she told him: «Vanya, I love you so much.»
When the neighboring houses were bombed, the burning fragments flew in different directions, fell into the yard, on the alpine hill. Ivan ran out and pulled out the burning fragments. He was afraid that Victoria’s favorite flowers would die.
People were without communication, water, electricity under constant shelling for almost a month. There are only ruins around, there is a broken armored personnel carrier in the yard. In the wreckage of his roof, Ivan found fragments from a Hurricane shell. In the forest, behind the house, fallen trees, hundreds of meters of land plowed by the bombing. Explosions are heard from time to time, wild animals get on mines and are blown up. A huge collection of match labels has returned to the heroic safe. Victoria and Ivan are restoring the house, you can fix everything while you are alive. The main thing is that together, just next to each other.
Photo: Ukraine. Pushcha-Voditsa 2022.
The man lives in Moshchun, restores the house destroyed during the shelling. Of the 25 houses on the street, eight are left to be repaired. When the war began, he left for a safe place, the household remained at home: chickens and a dog. The neighbors moved to his basement, and they themselves promised to look after the animals. Three days later, a neighbor called and said. Thanks for the shelter, we will leave, my mother was killed. She went out to the surface for groceries and came under artillery fire. Two months later, the owner of the house returned home. At home, he was met by a dog and five surviving hens.
Photo: Ukraine. Moshchun 2022.
In the first days of the war, Sergei planned to take his wife out of Makarov to a safe place and return. She refused: «I won’t go without my son.» Sergei did not know how to persuade her.
The man and his son went to the military registration and enlistment office. The son was the first to grab a weapon, there were not enough weapons for Sergei.He was told to leave, the Russians can track the crowd by signals from their phones. Sergei begged, cried, got angry and cursed: «I’d better go to war, I’m a former military man. My mission in life is fulfilled, my son was born, I planted a tree. And my son is 21 years old, he has his whole life ahead of him!» He was answered: «- Go dad.»
Sergei has a roadside shop. On April 1, the locals called: «Russian soldiers are cleaning out your store.» Sergey answered: — What am I going to shoot, duley? Hai already climb.»
The guys from the TRO arrived there later. They threw a grenade into the store, looked, but it was empty, the soldiers managed to leave. The Ukrainian military then said: «- Uncle Seryozha, we did not want. War.» Sergey answered, «Yes, I know that it’s not the world. They threw it and it’s okay, it didn’t burn down at least. So, what about it? I should have asked, but are you eating it here?»
The first column of Russian technology passed by Makarov. Half an hour later they were met on the track and made porridge out of them. The explosions were very loud. The earth seemed to be trembling.
They hid in a neighbor’s damp basement, there was little air. Matches and lighters were not lit, candles were extinguished. Ignited with dry alcohol. The wife asked: “Don’t leave me, don’t leave Serezha.” He replied: “Damn, I shouldn’t hide here, but throw grenades, do something.
Strong shelling of the city began. Two mines exploded in Sergei’s yard. The glass in the house was shattered, slashed with fragments. Russian aviation bombed a bomb shelter in which several dozen people were hiding. According to Sergei’s acquaintances in Lipovka, the Russians gave a green corridor. They released six cars, and then shot them, burned them alive with children. Only coals remained. People were told to go, they will let you through.
Staying in the city was dangerous. Sergei is a former policeman and military man, all the locals know him. Sergei and his wife looked at each other and seemed to say goodbye.
On March 9, my wife could not stand it and said: «- Go get the car.» But, by that time, the car had burned down along with the garage, a direct hit 2 times. There is no transport left to get out.
They walked to the Palace of Culture. There were volunteers who helped drive to a safe place. The city building of Makarov, near which the Ukrainian military stood, was covered by Russian artillery. Several people were killed and several wounded. Among them is the son of Sergei. He was inside the building and was injured.
Sergei returned home in May. The locals have already «buried» him twice. Two local residents named Sergey died, and the neighbors thought that it was he who died. His friends were killed, one of them had his leg blown off. At first, it was painful to look at the destroyed buildings.
Photo: Ukraine. Makarov 2022.
Yuri lives with his wife in Makarov. Near the brick factory, in a one-story building, an adult daughter lives with her family.
On March 4, 2022, Russian troops began shelling Makarov. Explosions were heard in the area of a brick factory and destroyed the checkpoint there. Yuri’s daughter moved in with her father, and two hours later a mine flew into the roof of her house. The roof was completely blown off, but the walls survived.
Yuri with his family and neighbors hid from shelling in a small cellar. The man persuaded his wife to leave, the daughter cried: «Mom, let’s go, let’s go.» When the explosion was heard very close, glass flew out in the house and plaster fell down. Yuri’s wife covered her granddaughter from shrapnel. She got up, brushed herself off and said: «We dress and go.» Grabbed things from the closet and ran.
The husky dog had to be let out of the enclosure, in the old Zhiguli there was only enough space for people. We agreed with a neighbor that he would feed the dog. When the Zhiguli left Makarov, mines flew from behind. At the checkpoint, Yuriy was stopped by the Ukrainian military. We saw a child in the car, treated him to juice. Suddenly, shells flew overhead with a whistle, the military began to wave their hands: «Quickly, quickly leave.»
After the de occupation, on April 14 they returned to Makarov. They learned from a neighbor that the dog had died due to shrapnel. For Yuri, this is a big loss. The man’s house was damaged, shells from hail are lying in the garden.
In the city where Yuri lives, there are many dead. The Russian military fired not only at industrial zones, but also at columns with civilians and bomb shelters. The son of a friend was torn apart by an explosion right in the yard. A close friend of Yuri was shot by Russian soldiers.
Photo: Ukraine. Makarov 2022.
Victor lives in a multi-storey building in the city of Makarov. At the beginning of a large-scale offensive, the man did not have time to evacuate, and then strong battles began and it was not possible to leave the city. For three weeks Victor and his wife sat in the basement. The man noticed that there is always a small pause between shootings. They waited a moment and ran along the garages so that the Russians would not see them with the help of drones. Victor noticed a drone, which meant that they would now begin to cover them with shells.
Residents of Makarov ran with all their might to the volunteers who helped to leave the city. During the fighting, the house suffered from shelling, it was slashed with fragments, glass flew out.
Photo: Ukraine. Makarov 2022.
Like all other residents of the multi-storey building, the woman and her grandchildren hid from shelling in the basement. They did not receive an air raid signal. People called each other, told each other when there was danger. The woman’s house is located along the highway. Therefore, people heard when columns of Russian equipment passed along the road. On the first day, the first air bomb hit their house, a few minutes later the building shuddered from the second hit. In the place where the shell hit, a whole entrance disappeared, people died.
The woman was at the opposite end of the building, so she and her grandchildren survived. The explosion was so powerful that people lost their hearing for a while. A 17-year-old granddaughter has strands of gray hair.
After the explosion, they got out into the street and ran. They ran along Borodianka, wept and prayed. They ran to one man in the basement. People were sitting there and one of them said that volunteers were standing at the crossroads and taking the locals to Teterev. They went to the volunteers. They had two bottles of water and a piece of bread with them.
Photo: Ukraine. Borodyanka 2022.
Vladimir moved to Borodyanka from Tomsk in 1976. He is a former military man, in Ukraine he worked on an excavator, built houses.
When the Russian offensive began, he was in the city with his family.
On March 1, a man with his grandson sat on a bench near the house and watched a convoy of Russian military vehicles walk along the central road. A fighter jet appeared in the sky. Vladimir said to his grandson: — Look, our Russian columns are smashing. A minute later, a powerful explosion was heard, almost immediately a second explosion thundered and a nine-story building collapsed before their eyes. Then Vladimir realized that Russian aircraft had begun bombing civilian homes. At night, the Russians began to blow up other houses. He saw high-rise buildings stack up in the distance. The explosions were so powerful that people fell to the ground. The next morning, Vladimir and his family left Borodyanka. After the de-occupation, they returned and saw that the central street had been turned into ruins.
Photo: Ukraine. Borodyanka 2022.
On March 1, the Russians dropped two air bombs on Verin’s house. The whole entrance went underground. There were a lot of people in the house at that moment. Some of them survived, as they were in another part of the building.
Vera did not like to sit in the basement, but that day a neighbor persuaded her to go downstairs. They went to the back of the basement, talking, warming themselves near the electric fireplace. Suddenly there was a click and everything plunged into darkness. Someone shouted: — My apartment is gone!
Then, for some reason, everyone began to wet the masks with water and put them on. At that time, the coronavirus was raging and everyone wore masks with them. There was a lot of dust in the air and people ran outside. Vera went outside to look at her apartment and bang a second time. The Russians dropped a second air bomb. People ran into the loose. Vera ended up in the basement of a neighboring house. The next day, the woman was evacuated from the city. Now Vera continues to live in Borodyanka in the apartment of a dilapidated multi-storey building.
Photo: Ukraine. Borodyanka 2022.
Before the Russian invasion of Borodyanka, Nikolai was a fishmonger in a small shop. On February 26, he left for the village, which was located 37 km from Borodyanka. He thought that it would be a safe place, but he got into the epicenter of hostilities. There was a tower in the village, for which there were fierce battles. Aviation constantly flew, planes flew in pairs and dropped bombs on the veins of the house. It was difficult for Nikolai, he miraculously survived. After the de-occupation, he learned that many of his friends and regular customers had died, and on February 28, his apartment burned down as a result of a shell hit.
Photo: Ukraine. Borodyanka 2022.
Elena Petrovna lived in a five-story house in Mostishche with her husband, daughter, two grandchildren and a dog. The grandson is 14 years old, he is fond of football, and the granddaughter is a pharmacist. The Russians began shelling the village from the first days of the war. The woman with her family and friends hid during the shelling in the garage. There were twelve of them in total. Enemy fighters and bombers flew in the sky. The shelling intensified and on the first of March, friends evacuated the children. There were six people left in the garage: son, husband, godfather, godfather and friends, and a matchmaker. A shell flew into a neighboring garage and filled up people. Together they raked the rubble and saved people. After that, we decided to leave, but the car was broken by that time. They changed the wheels, got into a broken car and drove to nowhere. We left for Vinnitsa.
After the de-occupation, they returned and saw that their apartment and things were destroyed, there were no windows and doors. During the hostilities, there were twelve arrivals to the house.
Photo: Ukraine. Mostische 2022.
When shelling began in Moshchun, the man and his family were hiding in the garage. Active hostilities took place in the city. On March 4, a shell hit the garage, destroyed part of the wall and blocked the passage. Hearing the explosion, neighbors ran out of a nearby garage and helped people get out from under the rubble. When the man’s family got out of the destroyed garage, everyone jumped into the damaged car, grabbed the documents and drove to a safe place.
Photo: Ukraine. Mostische 2022.
Yura and his wife live in Buzova near the highway. He owns a roadside shop. When the war began, people did not evacuate, they stayed at home.
On February 28, a convoy of Russian vehicles entered Buzovaya. The Russians stopped at the beginning of the village and blocked the highway. The soldiers were based near the store, so that it would be easy to replenish food supplies. They took mostly what is hermetically sealed, canned food and alcohol. Not far from them was a rural equipment store, where tractors were sold. The Russians drove these tractors along the highway. They removed the wheels from brand new tractors and used them to construct shelters from return fire.
At the beginning of the village, the soldiers carried out searches. They went into houses and emptied the contents of cupboards, looking for military uniforms. Thus, the soldiers found out if their relative was serving in the Ukrainian troops. The Russians took cards from the phones of local residents and forced them to undress, looking for tattoos on their bodies.
One day, Yuri went out into the garden and saw a helicopter. The man did not run away, the helicopter hovered over the man for some time, and then flew away. The locals crowded together, stopped strangers, walked around and removed road signs so that the Russians could not navigate the village. Two locals went to the beginning of the village to see where the Russians had dug in and did not return. Their bodies are ours after the de-occupation in the sewers. Then the neighbors slowly began to leave, saving the children.
The locals said that at the beginning of the village near the highway there was a sniper. One day, Yuri saw a local dressed in white walking along the bridge over the highway with a white bag in his hand. He walked along the bridge and from a height saw Yuri in the yard. The man began waving a sack to Yuri and shouting «Volodimirovich, is there no bread in the store?». He thought that Yuri’s shop was open and that you could buy bread there.
Yuri was afraid that the sniper would kill the man and shouted at the top of his lungs: «Get out of there!!» . And he answered: «That’s nothing.» Then the whistle of bullets was heard. The man fell and crawled away on his bellies.
For 42 days there was no communication and electricity. The only connection to the world is a small radio. He was constantly listened to, but there was a problem with the batteries. They looked for batteries wherever possible, pulled them out of control panels, toys, electrical appliances. Yuri slept in the house, and his wife and mother-in-law in the summer house. It was safer there. The man went to the neighbors and fed the animals they left behind: cows, dogs and cats.
Yuri lived all his life near the highway and the hum of cars became the norm. And when the Russians came, the highway was empty, there was a deathly, frightening silence. For the first time in his life he heard such silence.
When it was getting dark, Yuri walked to the bridge and looked from the monocular towards Makarov, then in the other direction. In the direction of Bucha and Irpen, there was a constant glow, there were battles. The Russians did not shoot at night. Usually they started shooting at five in the morning.
The house was running out of food and on the ninth of March, Yuri rode a bicycle to the volunteers. There was a Ukrainian checkpoint and volunteers were distributing humanitarian aid. They didn’t bring humanitarian aid to the village, they said it was dangerous here, they were shooting.
On March 25, Yuriy and his wife saw how six Ukrainian military men quietly crept through the gardens, towards the Russian positions. After a while, the inhabitants of Buzova heard powerful explosions. Buzovaya shuddered because of the explosions for 6 hours. Yuri said to his wife: «It’s a pleasure to look at it, I’ll go again and marvel at how everything is burning there.» And the next morning they said on the radio that ours had blown up the warehouses of the Russians in Buzovaya.
On March 31, ours entered Buzovaya, there was joy! They drove beautifully along the highway, in four lanes. The locals met the soldiers and shouted to them: «Boys, don’t leave us!
Photo: Ukraine.Buzovaya 2022.
Nadezhda has been living for 40 years in the village of Mostishche. From the first day of the Russian offensive, the woman and her neighbors went down to the basement. When it became quiet between shelling, people went up to their apartments to take the necessary things, quickly cook food and replenish food supplies.
Then the intensity and power of shelling increased. Everything around rumbled. The woman took handfuls of calming pills. There was an explosion and a fire flared in the woman’s eyes, Nadezhda went deaf in one ear. When she ran out, she saw that windows and doors were broken in a multi-storey building. The neighbor grabbed Nadezhda and dragged her into the car. He took her to a relative. Hope was severely shell-shocked, her eyesight fell, and for several weeks everything was in a fog, the woman does not remember anything. At first he lived with his niece, then with another relative. Nadezhda missed home, after the de-occupation she returned to Mostische. There were several arrivals in her apartment, walls, doors and windows were knocked out. Garbage in the apartment was up to the knees. Among the fragments, bricks, pieces of the wall lay shells that looked like pipes. Nadezhda picked up the pipe and decided that it was part of the plumbing. Went to the bathroom and tried to attach the pipe to the sink. The son of Nadezhda entered the apartment, saw this and was stunned. He snatched the pipe from the woman and ran away. She later learned that it was not an exploding hail shell.
Photo: Ukraine. Mostische 2022.
Vyacheslav served on the border with China in his youth, and now lives in Gostomel in a five-story building. The son serves in ZSU. At the other end of the city lives a daughter-in-law with her grandchildren. The Russians captured Gostomel in the first days of the offensive. Vyacheslav moved to his daughter-in-law’s house and gave her his car to Slavut. Thanks to this, the woman and grandchildren of Vyacheslav were able to evacuate. There was no electricity or gas in the city. Vyacheslav needed to keep warm somehow and he collected firewood for the fire. One day he was walking for firewood, went to the turn and heard the whistle of bullets. The man realized that they were firing at him. After the de-occupation, Vyacheslav returned to his apartment and saw that all the windows were broken. Neighbors said that the soldiers came to search him.
Photo: Ukraine. Gostomel 2022.
Pavlo lives with his family in Buzova. The village is located away from the capital. Pavlo thought that it would be safe in the village and brought his daughter with a baby from Kyiv. With each passing day, the sounds of battle were getting closer to the village. Artillery duels began, shells flew over the man’s house. In order to hide from shelling, Pavlo’s family began to spend the night in the cellar of a neighboring house. In total there were 10 people and two dogs.
On March 3, a Russian tank drove into the village and fired. Pavlo at that moment was on the balcony and watched. Then more tanks came out and started firing. Later, local residents found several shot cars in the direction where the tanks were firing.
On March 4, powerful explosions began to be heard near Pavel’s house, shells hit neighboring houses and it was destroyed. A lot of enemy planes appeared in the sky. Pavlo made the decision to evacuate. On March 5, Pavlo’s family was evacuated, the cats did not want to go, broke free and ran away.
Pavlo’s house survived, but was badly damaged.
Photo: Ukraine. Buzovaya 2022.
Katerina with her daughter, parents and boyfriend Alexei live on the main street in the village of Buzovaya. On February 24, they woke up due to a large flow of cars moving along the road. The headlights of the cars shone through the windows and interfered with the sleep of the residents of the house. Katerina thought that the locals were going to work, but she could not understand why there were so many of them and so early on the road. At 6 am, Katerina’s mother called and said that the war had begun.
At the family council, they decided to stay at home, as they live far from the capital. Katerina’s family believed that the village was safe and everything would be fine.
On February 28, in the local group of the community, the administrators wrote that a convoy of Russian equipment was moving along the highway, fighting had begun and local residents needed to hide. The message said that it was impossible to leave the house, because the Russians were shooting at everyone they met on their way. There was a cellar on the street, all the seed went underground. Russian tanks began to drive along the central street. Katerina’s family sat in the basement for 5 days. The weather was winter, people were freezing in the cellar. During a lull, he went home to sleep. They slept in the corridor on the floor, in clothes and shoes, so that at any moment they could run out into the street. The fighting went on for days. Sometimes they ran out of the basement only for a few minutes to make tea and warm up. They shot hard and at some moments it seemed that the ground was moving away from under their feet.
The shootings became more violent. Enemy fighters and helicopters were flying in the sky. In the direction of Makarov, a glow could be seen. On March 5, in the evening they stopped shooting. Katerina and her family went into the house to warm up. Aleksey saw through the window that flashes appeared at the edge of the forest and after that shots were heard. Two tanks dug in there and fired at the village. The whistle of flying shells was heard over the house. Soon they got into the barn, the blast wave knocked out windows and doors. Katerina did not have time to get dressed, grabbed her daughter and ran out into the street. There was a smell of gunpowder in the yard, everything was in smoke and fire, buildings were burning, explosions were heard somewhere nearby. They grabbed the bags and in a panic began to run towards the school, Katerina’s mother stopped them and dragged them to another barn. They sat there for several hours. When everything was quiet, they left the barn and headed to the school. The school was nearby, you just need to cross the road and you are in the school yard. Katerina found out that when the Russians hit them with tanks, on the other hand they covered the school with hail. The third floor of the school burned out completely.
They went down to the school basement and sat there for almost a day. There were many people in the basement, among them children and the wounded.Katerina saw the wounded man, he was in a state of shock, his wife died that evening under the rubble of the house. The next day, the guys from the territorial defense came running and said that the evacuation had begun. In what they stood, in that they went. Things were not taken with them. Katerina’s dad refused to evacuate and stayed at home. God only knows what he went through during the occupation. It is only known that once the Russians fired at Buzovaya and got into the house of Katerina’s parents. The father was thrown away from the house by an explosive wave, he hit his head, but did not run away. He sat down on a stone, lit a cigarette and watched his house burn down. A neighbor came running to the rescue, ran with buckets, flickered and shouted: «What are you sitting, why are you sitting?!!!»
Photo: Ukraine. Buzovaya 2022.
Anya lived in Bucha with her younger brother Vladik and her parents. In the first days of the Russian offensive, they left for a rural house and came under occupation. They were there for several weeks. This village is located near Moshchun, where fierce battles took place. There was no evacuation of the civilian population. The girl’s parents did not know how to save their children from the war and did not understand what to do next.
On March 9, they decided to drive through the forest to Lyutizh, where Ukrainian troops were stationed. Anya’s father hung white ribbons on the car, wrote in large letters — CHILDREN.
In the neighboring village of Rakovka, Anna’s grandmother lived and her mother went every day for milk. The woman knew that there were no Russians there and that everything was calm. It was scary, but they decided to leave. The children sat in the back, huddled close to each other, the father was driving, the woman was sitting in the front seat. Suddenly, 5 Russian soldiers came out of the corner and started shooting at the car with a machine gun.
The man rushed at high speed to the house of Anna’s grandmother, which was 200 meters away. The people in the car were in a state of shock. Vladik bent down and did not get up, the girl was moaning. When the car stopped, the parents saw that the boy was dead, and the girl was badly injured and bleeding. One bullet pierced the girl through the stomach and killed the boy.
The father carried the blue child out of the car. The mother was in shock and did not say goodbye to her son. She grabbed her bleeding daughter and rushed to Bucha. They were driving through the village of Lubyanka. There were many Russian soldiers there. The Russians stopped the car and ordered the woman to turn around.
The woman jumped out of the car and said: Then kill me! Soldiers took the woman and her daughter to the hospital. Anya was immediately operated on. After that, they were sent by helicopter to Belarus. There, the girl was admitted to the hospital. Anya’s mother was with her daughter all the time, but when she went out, the girl was very worried that the Russians would not grab her mother. As soon as the girl felt better, Anya and her mother left for Berlin.
The father buried his twelve-year-old son, got on his bicycle and rode to the Kyiv reservoir. He swam across the icy water to the opposite shore and reached Kyiv. Anya’s father, after the grief experienced, began to stutter. After the de-occupation, he returned home and saw that their apartment had been robbed, and everything was upside down in the house. Neighbors said that Kadyrovites lived in their house. The house was restored, but the boy cannot be returned …
The girl’s mother returned to Bucha. The family wants to adopt a 12 year old boy whose parents died during the war.
The girl is undergoing treatment in Berlin and lives there with her grandmother. Sometimes Anya comes to Ukraine to visit her parents.
Photo: Ukraine. Gostomel. November 2022
A resident of Buzovaya and her husband have a small roadside shop. During the Russian offensive, the village came under occupation. The daughter and granddaughter were evacuated on March 9. They hung white flags on the car and drove towards Kyiv. The woman was very worried about the children, while they were traveling, she prayed to God that they would survive. Fortunately, my daughter called and said that everything was in order, they left safely. The woman survived heavy shelling in Buzovaya. During the shelling, the daughter’s house was destroyed.
Photo: Ukraine. Buzovaya 2022
Anya lives in Kyiv and works for a construction company. In February 2022, Anya’s children visited their grandparents in Lisovichi. The village is located in the Kyiv region, not far from the city of Demidov. On the morning of February 24 at five in the morning, Anya and her husband took their things and went to the children in the village.
On March 6, the village was occupied by Russian troops. The soldiers ransacked Anya’s house several times. At the beginning of the village, the military built a checkpoint. For local residents, the Russians staged a curfew. From nine o’clock in the morning until five in the evening, it was forbidden to move around the streets. You could only go out to your yard. These rules were not known to people living further on.
There is a big house not far from the village where the family lived. Because of the hostilities, they lost electricity, communications and gas. They could not heat the house and were very cold. Vitalik and his wife, ten-year-old daughter and sister decided to evacuate. When the car drove up to the checkpoint, automatic bursts were heard. Vitalik sent the car into a ditch, it stopped and the passengers ran out of the car. Vitalik grabbed his daughter in his arms and everyone ran. An explosion was heard behind them, the Russians fired at the car and it exploded.
Local residents heard the shooting, understood something had happened. Half an hour later, a neighbor came running to Anya’s house and told everything.
Anya grabbed a first aid kit and she and her dad rushed to a neighbor. The family of the victims was in her house. The man was bleeding, he had 7 bullet wounds and his toes were torn off. Vitalik’s sister had a shrapnel wound in her shoulder.
In the hope of helping the wounded, an obstetrician-gynecologist came running, she had never dealt with such wounds, so the former military man, Anya’s father, began to suggest what to do. When the man was being treated, Russian drones flew over the house and watched the actions of the locals.
The wounded man was bandaged with rags, rubber bands, and women’s pads covered the bullet wounds. Anya trembled with fear, despite this she sewed up the wounds on the man’s body. Anya and her father went home, and the next morning they again ran to the wounded, afraid that they would not survive. There were no antibiotics and painkillers, and Vitaly needed urgent medical help. Anya’s father agreed with the soldiers that the villagers would take the wounded man to the hospital. Vitalik and his family were taken to a hospital in a nearby town, but the hospital did not have any medicine. Doctors examined the wounded, but could not help. The man was in the hospital for two days.
The Russians allowed the evacuation of seriously ill patients to the controlled territory of Ukraine. But the road lay through the crossing, which was bombed. Vitalik crossed the crossing on his own, wounded, without fingers, waist-deep in icy water. His daughter sat on his shoulders, his wife and wounded sister walked beside him.
In Kyiv he was taken to Akhmadet. There, six bullets were taken out of Vitalik’s body, and the seventh bullet was near the heart. At the heart center clinic, Vitalik was operated on.
During the occupation, soldiers held captives in a rural basement. They brought local men there, and when they retreated, about 15 people from different villages were taken to Russia. Relatives were looking for their relatives in the prisons of Russia.
After the de-occupation, Vitalik returned to the village and helps the rangers and the military to clear the forest.
Photo: Ukraine. Mostische 2022
Camila is 11 years old. She lives in Buzova. Together with her family, she was in the village until March 5. Almost all the time the girl sat in a cold and damp cellar. When fierce shelling began in Buzovaya, the girl and her family were evacuated.
Photo: Ukraine.Buzovaya 2022
In the first days of the Russian offensive, fighting began in Makarov. A resident of Makarov was evacuated to a safe place. During Russian shelling, the city was destroyed by about 40 percent. In the Makarov community, after the de-occupation, 132 people were found shot by Russian executioners.
Photo: Ukraine. Makarov 2022
Sergey has been building a house for 8 years. Parents helped with money and also worked in three places. Before the large-scale offensive of the Russians, Sergei agreed with his sister that when the war began, his sister would come to him. On February 24, Sergei and his wife woke up from explosions. At 4.44 my sister called and said: “Seryozha, this has begun.” She came to Buzovaya. In Gostomel, attempts began to land Russian troops. We decided to leave, closed the house, let the cat out into the yard. The whole family went to Vinichina. When Sergei returned to Buzovaya, he saw that his house had been destroyed.
Photo: Ukraine.Buzovaya 2022
Dasha is 10 and Anya is 11 years old. They live in Makarov. In the first days of a large-scale offensive, the girls left the city. When they returned, they saw that their school was badly damaged, and the neighboring houses were destroyed.
Photo: Ukraine. Makarov 2022
A resident of Gostomel spent three weeks in the occupation. When Russian tanks drove into the yard, people were already sitting in the basements hiding from shelling. The soldiers searched the basement, after which they began to knock out the doors to the apartments. The roar was strong. Residents of the house brought the keys to the apartments to the soldiers, but they said: «It’s too late, they should have been given earlier!» and continued to punch.
Russian soldiers forced local residents to sit in the basement, while they themselves were in apartments. In the morning, the soldiers opened the door and let the tenants out into the yard for a short time. In total, about 30 people sat in the basement. Among them were 10 children. The locals sometimes interacted with the soldiers. The warriors said that they themselves did not understand why they had come to Ukraine. Some of them thought they had come to Ukraine to study. Residents of Gostomel retorted: «Teaching how to kill people?»
The soldiers forbade people to use phones. They asked, do you know where your president is? People answered that they did not know, because there was no connection and no light. The warriors mockingly said: «Your Zelensky ran away, left you!». Despite this, the locals secretly contacted the mainland and were aware of what was happening. At that time, it was important for people to know that the president was fulfilling his duties and was trying to do everything to save them. They lived in hope.
Then the Russians began to say that negotiations had begun between Russia and Ukraine. Some of them dreamed that the negotiations would end with the withdrawal of soldiers from Ukraine. But some were very angry. The Buryats were especially aggressive.
People survived as best they could. Sometimes they were allowed to make a fire and cook something. To start a fire, they looked for branches, broke old street benches. And then I didn’t want to eat, we cried all the way, the children cried and the adults next to them.
Lyudmila with her adult daughter — a disabled person managed to leave the occupied city through the green corridor. It was scary to leave, anything could happen on the road. When we were driving, we saw the shot cars and the inscriptions CHILDREN, CHILDREN, CHILDREN on them. There was a feeling of fear and at the same time hatred for the invaders. When the bus hit the Ukrainian checkpoint, the people in the bus were crying and shouting: — Hooray! Glory to Ukraine!
Returning home after the de-occupation, Lyudmila saw that part of the multi-storey building was completely destroyed, and the surviving apartment was looted by Russian soldiers.
Photo: Ukraine. Gostomel 2022.
Zhenya and his family live in Irpin. In the first days of the Russian offensive, the boy saw from the window of the apartment how Russian aircraft bombed Gostomel. When hostilities began in Irpen, the family went down to the basement of a multi-storey building. Then they moved to a warm basement and lived there for 10 days. Once a mine flew into the yard and exploded near the basement where the people were. Because of the blast wave, the door flew out and Zhenya was very scared. On the same day, he and his family evacuated through the green corridor.
Photo: Ukraine. Irpin 2022
Mikhail, a resident of Irpen, fought in the Donbass in 2015. His call sign is Harmonist. Returning to his hometown, he took up his favorite business, making accordions. When Russia launched a large-scale offensive, Mikhail on the same day went to fight for Ukraine. At the end of March, near Izyum, heavy shelling began. The partner was killed, and Mikhail received a shrapnel wound. The first bullet shattered his arm, and the second hit his neck. The man began to lose consciousness, Andriukha crawled under the shelling and said: «Hold on grandfather, don’t fall asleep,» he applied a tourniquet and dragged him to a safe place.
Mikhail lay in various hospitals for several months, underwent six operations. Doctors worked miracles and saved the hand. She won’t be able to bend, if it were possible, she would seal it with cement and go back to the front. Mikhail dreams of a war, then he is taken prisoner, then there are shelling. Returning to Irpen, Mikhail saw that his car had been hit by shrapnel, but the collection of harmonicas had survived.
Photo: Ukraine. Irpin 2022