‘The building collapsed from the fifth floor to the second floor’

My parents said: ‘Let’s pack up our things and leave for Krasnoarmiysk.’ Our grandmother lives in Krasnoarmiysk. We went there and just that same evening Krasnohorivka came under shellfire. Something horrible was happening here. Trains were cancelled immediately. At seven p.m. a diesel train was supposed to come, but it turned around and went back because trains were no longer allowed to pass.

Some shells hit the bank office right at once and it was on fire. A fuel filling station was on fire and a shop too. Power supply was cut off immediately. Many people left the town, but some still stayed here. In our building, three persons stayed. They did not go anywhere. They lived without electricity, without water supply, without anything.

We parents stayed here, and my daughter and I then left in September 2014. It was 11 September. My daughter and I left for Kyiv. We came back for Easter, in April 2015. When my daughter and I came here, my father died. I came to the apartment, but there were no windows, everything was nailed up. There was no water and no gas supply. There were shell fragments. My room was badly damaged. Shell fragments hit the walls. Many things were damaged and I had just to throw them away.

When our house came under fire, the market was hit too. The new market burned down completely. We have a store across the road. It burned down completely too. A bakery in the yard burned down. Some sheds were on fire. A mine hit the five-storey building. School number two was severely damaged and was on fire. The building next door came under direct hit and had destructions from the fifth to the second floor. It just collapsed. It was at six in the morning. The children woke up and were scared. We were staying in the entrance hallway, on the staircase. All the tenants of the building gathered and were staying on staircases and in the entrance hallway.

Until the hostilities are over, no one will be supplying gas to us. They keep promising. Allegedly, some repairs are underway. Yet, they have been promising us since 2015. It is now the third year. People survive as best as they can. Some people put cast-iron stoves in their houses. But it is expensive to buy coal, firewood. All this is very expensive. Especially in this town, where there are no jobs. It is difficult for people.

My father died in January 2015. And right at that time, there was no power supply in the town. It was January and it was 20 degrees below zero outside. He had a stroke and it took a very long time for the ambulance to come here because the town was under shellfire. If the ambulance had come earlier, it would have been possible to save him, but it did not work out that way. He was not saved.

Sometimes the kids get ill and the doctor prescribes some drugs, but you cannot afford to buy them, you don’t have money. You start some folk cure or remedy like mustard plasters, rubbing and hot tea.

It happens that you cannot afford to buy some medicine to cure your child. We also have limitations in buying clothes. I cannot afford to buy something new for my kids.

Those who moved away never came back here. People remaining here are those who almost did not go anywhere. Our Krasnohorivka used to be a small town, but sort of compact and comfortable or cozy. It had everything: banks, kindergartens and schools. There used to be active life in the town. While now, there is nothing to do here at all, basically. There are no jobs here. We used to have a production plant and people worked there. Now, the plant does not work because there is no gas supply and people are left without any work. There is no future here.

I would like it all to be over as soon as possible and peace to come. Everyone dreams about this. Everyone is waiting for all of this very much, for peace to come, for everything to be restored, so that everything in the town would be as before. So that there would be jobs. I want to go to bed and to wake up without any stress and not to worry that you can wake up in the morning and find half of your house destroyed. I believe that it is important for every person in our town to see it calm and quiet, to see peace here.