"My mother was lying on the fridge covered in blood, my brother had no legs. Our daughter was still breathing"

A russian bomb hit the house of a police officer from Borodianka in the first days of the full-scale invasion. At the age of 26, Ivan lost his daughter, his wife, his parents, his brother and his grandmother. One-year-old Polina was still breathing when she was pulled out from under the rubble. Unfortunately, the girl died in the hospital. That evening, Ivan took the whole family to the morgue. The six of his dearest people. Journalists from Kyiv TV channel visited the scene of the tragedy. They documented Ivan’s story.

It happened on 26 February 2022, at 11:00 o’clock in the morning. I was near the district police station when I heard the sound of some explosion outside. Even the ground shook a little. Then, I took out my phone and started calling my mother, my wife, my father, my brother, and my grandmother… well, and grandmother too. All of them were out of reach and I realized that something was wrong. The district police station is three kilometres away from my home. Then, I phoned our neighbour. Many of our neighbours did not pick up their phones either, that’s it. One neighbour answered the phone and said that allegedly our house was hit. We rushed off and came there immediately. It was a terrible picture indeed.

First, I saw my mother on the fridge. That’s the fridge. Part of the fridge. My mum was lying on the fridge covered in blood and with no signs of life. Further there, some 200 metres from the house, about 200 metres from the house, a dog was sitting. It was my brother’s dog. It was sitting near my brother. My brother was without his both legs. We came up to the dog immediately and saw that my brother was lying there and he had no legs. He was some 200 metres from here and had no signs of life either.

Then, after some time, we found my grandmother here. We cleared and removed some rubble here. We found my grandmother and she was without any signs of life either.

My friend Yura took her to the hospital immediately… he took her to the hospital. She died in the evening; she passed away at eight o’clock in the evening. That’s terrible… Then, about an hour later, we found my wife Olena, around here, where the tree is lying. We found my wife near this tree, without any signs of life either. About 30 minutes later, probably, we found my father near the apricot tree. Yes, it was my father’s body there… Then, I took all the bodies to the morgue in the evening and that was it.

It was probably the first airstrike. The first blown-up and destroyed house. I do not know how to call it. Right here, on 26 February, at around 11:00 or 12:00 o’clock. The rubble from the destroyed house covered this cellar. The cellar was about 30-40 square metres. I thought that maybe somebody could be in the cellar… There was an empty stroller there. We had put a stroller and a bed too… but nobody was there. Then, we also hoped that my father could be in the utility room. That is, he could be in his workshop. Unfortunately, there was nobody there either. We checked all the places we could and did not find anyone anywhere. We started clearing and removing the rubble – there was nobody.

I do not know how to live on after this. I don’t know… People are in need of help now. Everyone needs help. A lot of people need help. Some people have been left without their belongings, and others have lost their family members or relatives. Yes, indeed, and all my colleagues too…