Stories that you confided to us
War is the most stupid thing. All this shooting, killing, dying. All these heart attacks, strokes...
We were traveling from Luhansk with our daughter and granddaughter. We left Luhansk in 2014. A woman was killed at a bus-stop during the shelling attack. This was my first war encounter.
And the second one happened on 2 February 2015, when our village was shelled heavily.
The biggest test we had during the war years was when we returned. We lived in the basement for two months. When we arrived, there was no roof, no stove, nothing. Everything was destroyed. It hurts to see this. I had to climb the roof and repair the roof at 75.
One day, my wife and I were sitting where the refrigerator is. Suddenly we heard a rumbling sound. The apartment was smashed. We were set free from debris once before. A driver came to pick us up, clearing the door to get us out of there.
She was 77. Nelia Fadiivna Voitenko. We've lived together for forty years. She's a Chernobyl survivor (category two). She had three strokes. And all because of the war, because of the experience she had.
In 1986, she was sent to Chernobyl right in the midst of the disaster. She fed the miners in Prypiat.
I'm alone now. There is no one to talk to.
I've been retired since 1990. I am a miner. I have worked as a miner for 43 years. And now I'm living out on my own, alone. I have no coal, no wood, no heating. It is hard.
What is the worst part? Nobody cared for us. No one needs us, no government, no one.
This village has become the village of pensioners with low-income pensions. We have coal or firewood here. We have to buy everything ourselves.
Humanitarian packages we get are very helpful.
My dream is to live in peace. I wish they stopped shooting.
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/
