«They placed women and children on top of military vehicles and used them as human shield»

The weeks under occupation were a real horror for the family. Alina Stepaniuk, her husband and their four-year-old daughter lived in a small village near Bucha. Almost nothing remained of their peaceful life after the Russian invasion.

My husband, our four-year-old daughter and I lived in our private house. On 24 February, we were in the village of Andriivka of Makariv district. A neighbour informed us that the war started and so we had to stay at home and did not go anywhere.

Later, we got a message from the kindergarten asking parents not to take their kids to the kindergarten. There was also a message from work asking everyone to stay at home. We did not hear any shelling on 24 February. No one was seen on the street; everyone stayed at home. On 26 February, closer to the evening, the military came to the village. When they were entering the village, we heard some explosions several times and they just drove through our Andriivka settlement in a convoy in the direction of Makariv. Later, we also heard some explosions.

This was the first horrible event that we witnessed in our village. From 26 to 28 February, we still had power supply. Later, explosions started and some shells hit electric poles. Electricity disappeared and the telephone connection was gone. We still had food available, as we were in the village. We also had water in the well. We were staying in the cellar. We had some preserves or jarred food there; we had plenty of that food in stock. The only problem was that there was no bread. However, when it was quiet, we cooked and baked a little. We still had gas supply. Gas was cut off after 8 March.

At that time, we hid during heavy shelling attacks. We heard it loud and clear when tanks and Grad MLRS were firing. I saw with my own eyes two airplanes from which mines were dropped near our settlement. The sound they produced was very loud. Russian soldiers occupied the village council. When they sometimes walked around the village, they could be heard shooting from machine guns. But that was still relatively quiet compared to when Grad MLRS fired and bombs exploded. One of the shells hit our neighbours’ garage nearby. That was at the beginning of March. It burned down completely. We tried to help him stop the fire then. When bombs [projectiles] from tanks landed in the yards, the windows in people’s houses shattered. My husband helped people board up or cover the windows, as it was cold outside.

When those soldiers appeared in our settlement, they occupied the premises of the village council. They lodged themselves in a bomb shelter at a local school and lived there.

They took away people’s phones, searched and turned people’s belongings inside out. They also took people’s food. Some of local men were taken captive. They checked whether those men belonged to any military bodies or not. They asked them whether they had done any military service and if they had any tattoos. It was dangerous to walk along the road. A curfew was introduced and everyone was warned to stay inside then. It was scary to go out alone. Soldiers moved around the village. No one knew what was on their minds. It was likely that one of them could just walk up and hit you in the head without asking anything. Locals did not go out.

It was very scary emotionally. I could not imagine that this could happen in our time. Conflicts should be resolved peacefully. It is very difficult for me to accept this mentally. I could not eat and sleep at all. Even some sedatives did not help me. I lost too much weight. On 8 March, when I moved to my parents, the situation seemed to get a little easier.

I was very afraid for our daughter. She had not seen anything like this, and we did not know if we would be able to survive and if we would manage to leave. People said that a lot of families were shot on the way trying to leave. The risk was terribly high but, thank God, we managed to leave this occupied village. On the eve of our departure, very heavy shelling attacks happened and many houses burned down. A kindergarten burned down too. People began to leave their homes in panic. It was scary to leave by car.

We could not do this because our kid is small. We had to go by car. A day before the 8th of March, my husband and other men, who were planning to leave, went to Russian soldiers and asked them for [evacuation] corridors to be able to leave. In the morning, we packed up and left, at our own risk and peril. Just the most necessary things, documents, and savings. We wrapped our car in white bed-sheets, tied white armbands on our arms and drove off. We saw some remnants of damaged tanks on the road. Those were Russian tanks; they were marked with “V” sign. There were also some checkpoints on the way.

There was a Russian checkpoint but no one was there anymore. On our way, we saw the body of a dead Russian soldier. People said that there were some dead bodies in our settlement too, but they did not know who they belonged to. For now, we have moved to Volyn region, the village of Osa. My parents live here. They asked us [to come] when it all only started but we thought that it would escape our village. There were no strategic military facilities there. We could not even imagine that such a terrible thing could happen; that such a number of military vehicles and soldiers would come to our settlement.