"There were dead bodies, bloodied people were screaming. They could not understand where they were going"

Mykola and Liudmyla Mykhaylets have been together for over 25 years. During this time, they learned to understand each other without saying. On 27 June 2022, they almost lost each other. That day, which started as an ordinary day, became a second birthday for both of them.

On that day, two missiles hit their native Kremenchuk. During the missile attack on the shopping mall, the couple was at the epicentre of the explosion. Almost two dozen dead, more than 60 injured and dozens missing people – those are the consequences of the tragedy.

Mykola still does not understand how he and his wife managed to get out of that hell...

It was an ordinary Monday. I was going about my business. I went out on an errand, and nothing meant trouble. My wife and I decided to drop by Amstor shopping mall. She said that her kitchen blender broke down and she wanted us to have a look and see what the prices were. Well, and maybe to buy one. Well, everything was fine. We entered Amstor shopping mall and went inside Comfy store.

We were standing and looking at the options. Suddenly some insane, terrible popping [explosion] and I lost consciousness. My wife did not, but I lost my consciousness. I regained consciousness feeling that some water was just running on me, and there was a heap of some rubble I was covered with. I tried to get out. This water actually brought me to my senses. I crawled out of that pile of rubble. I somehow broke free and saw that my wife was lying some three metres from me. She was also covered with some pieces of metal structures and plates or slabs.

As soon as I regained consciousness, I tried to understand what happened, what happened at all. And when I got out and looked around, I realized. A thought flashed through my mind that it was some kind of a huge explosion. I was lying covered with some pipes and other stuff, and this leg was under some beam channel.

I pulled it out with effort. I pulled it out and a piece of skin, a piece of flesh left there... Well, I pulled this leg out with an effort, as I needed to get free. I freed himself.

There was a fire; I saw flames here and there. There was no back wall and no roof anymore. Well, part of the roof above us was still there, but there was no more roof further there. She was screaming, and screaming really loudly, “Help, please, help!” Well, she was screaming and I saw her. She was lying three metres away from me. We had been standing like that, almost holding hands. My wife did not lose consciousness, but I did.

And my wife told me [later] that when the explosion occurred, we were thrown about two meters up and then we flew aside some five or four meters. At that moment, some pipes and fragments hit us. We were just riddled [with fragments] as we flew. Then, as we fell down, all this began to collapse upon us from the ceiling. Well, some kind of a plate was lying on her. She said it was a metal plate. Well, as I understand, it was a concrete slab or some kind of a beam channel, and sand or clay was poured on it. Well, something like that, and a bunch of metal elements. I moved those pieces of metal, those pipes, some sheets and the like, but I could not lift that slab. I tried to use some pipe to lift it up, as nothing else could fit in there. I shoved another one in there, then with all my strength, I lifted that slab a bit... and she got out.

At first, she was all covered, but as I removed all that rubble, it turned out that the slab rested on her body and she had her arm broken in three places. It was an open fracture, yes, yes, it was terrible. And she could not lean on anything, and she was covered in blood all over. Everything was torn here, it was hanging down like that. I was also completely bloodied, my face was all covered in blood...

When I pulled her out, we started to make our way to the exit. It was not easy to get out, as there were piles of metal structures and a flame was burning. And we could not climb over these piles of metal – I was barefoot and she was probably still wearing her shoes. She did not lose her shoes, while I was unshod and undressed. She held her arm and moved somehow. She walked some short distances and then made a stop. Then she walked again a little bit, and then we climbed over.

We... and when we started going there, we saw a young girl. Well, she was also covered in blood all over. She was wearing a long yellow dress, her face was covered in blood, and she kept falling. She tried to walk and was losing consciousness, as I understand. I picked her up and said, “We need to go, there are people there.” And my wife said, “Just don’t give up, you have to go.” And so I... She fell down there again. I lifted her up again. Well, in short, we lifted this girl up three times and tried...

And when we were almost out of there, some boy ran up to us and said, “Let’s go here, here, this way.” And so we came outside of the shopping mall, and this girl fainted again. I talked to her, “Hey, girl!” The boy said, “It’s ok. You run on for rescue and I will take this girl out.” Well, he was not injured, nothing, intact. And I saw how he ran back there to pick up the girl. And so I felt relieved. The fire was just blazing up.

There was not much fire yet, it was just starting. Well, it’s all there... those piles of metal structures, all those people screaming, and all that... My first priority was to save my wife. I saw her arm, that bone, well, I had to get her some [medical] aid. And I also realized that I had everything torn and hanging here. I went to the station, thinking that we could get some help there. I was told there was nothing and no one there. People who were at the station called us…, they called us an ambulance.

We waited there for some 10 minutes but no one was coming. I realized that my wife was about to lose consciousness and I decided to run there, to Amstor, because I saw that the ambulances were going there, so I needed to do something. I ran to Amstor, ran up to the paramedics and explained that my wife was there and I needed help. They were like, “We cannot, well, but we’ll call now.” And some girl, a paramedic, called and said that help was on the way, help was coming there to the station.

First aid was given to my wife. They made her some injections of anaesthetics immediately so that she does not lose consciousness, and measured her blood pressure. Well, and they brought us here. She is in the second ward. She got a serious head injury. She got a concussion, as it turned out. She also has broken ribs.

They checked in Poltava. She has four broken ribs on one side, four on the other side, her arm was broken in three places, and open fractures of the radial bone. Her body is of blue colour all over, and she has stitches... One arm is broken, the other one is stitched up. Well, she suffered much more than I did. I talked to the doctor and he said that she would need at least half a year. Well, that is the minimum term of my wife’s treatment. Well, and as for me, I’m a man, I’m strong, I [recover] quickly.

My wife is 43 years old. We have been living together for 26 years. It will be 26 years on 3 August. She works on the railway. We have a son who lives in Poland. He is 20 years old.

We were in the very epicentre, exactly where this bomb landed. It exploded right 10 meters from us, or even closer. And we survived, and we both survived. Not just one of us. It means, we have not finished something. Our main plan is to visit our son. The main thing is that we want to go and see our son. These are our thoughts. To cut it short, we need to see our son. We want to be together, with the son, with my wife, and we want peace.