Stories that you confided to us
‘I cowered near the washing machine and covered my head with my hands’
Grandmother Olena Shevchenko:
In February, on 6 February, it will be one year since I was not at home. The children went there, but I didn’t. We had a pile of stacked firewood there and it hit just there and damaged the corner of the house with fragments. It hit the house – the door in the house was open and all the windows were blown out instantly, in a second. If it were not for that long firewood stacked there, there would not be a house here.
My daughter repaired everything, reinforced it all. We thought we would live here, but it hit for the second time! And on the second time a thick pipe in the fence was just cut. A shell landed there. Opposite to our house there lived a man, Pavlyk. If I am correct, he was born in 1961 or 1960. He was killed. It would have killed us too, if it had fallen a little lower. It would hit right into our heads, both mine and my daughter’s.
It probably affected my sciatic nerve because after that I cannot walk and I even cannot lie. This is how I live. We live at my granddaughter’s place.
Granddaughter Natalia Yefymova:
We have four children and five adults here. It was clear that we could leave there neither the grandmother in her age, nor the kid who is just one year old. That is why we had to take them out of there immediately.
The house opposite to their house was badly damaged. Our uncle was killed there. That is why we took them out immediately. There were no decisions to wait for anything. It is good that we have a big house and can accommodate everyone. Five living rooms, there is enough space for everyone, thank God.
Great-grandson Viktor Yefymov, 15 years old:
The main thing is that there is no more shelling, so that the house could be restored to live there normally. Nine persons in the house – there is not much space where to play. Vania and Vitalik are small. We are waiting for peace and good time, most importantly.
I was at home. I was lying and watching TV. And then, the power was cut off. I heard that something started to fall and windowpanes were shaking strongly. And my little sister was going near me right at that moment. I took her in my arms and went into the corridor immediately.
And then my aunt ran in. We just came into the kitchen and it [the shell] fell! All the windows were blown out. I cowered near the washing machine and covered my head with my hands.
When I am at home and they start shelling from hillside, it bangs very hard. So hard that everything is shaking, the windows and the chandeliers. Electricity is cut off. We lived without electricity for a week and it was not really good. We did not go to school for a whole week.
Grandmother Olena Shevchenko:
When it banged [exploded] here, we did not know where to run. We were in the house and the cellar. When they start shelling, the house is shaking all over. I went and prayed to God. We went down into the cellar and closed ourselves up there, but what’s there? What’s in the cellar? It could hit the cellar and collapse and that’s it.
My great-granddaughter was one year old. Now she is two years old. But then she was one year old and she said: ‘A man bangs.’ She recalls it from time to time even now.
The main thing is that it all ends and there is no war, most importantly. If there is no war, there will be peace.
When quoting a story, a reference to the source – the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation – is mandatory, as follows:
The Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation https://civilvoicesmuseum.org/
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