Natalia Maliy, mother:
It was six in the evening, just beyond six o’clock. People around were running, some of them fell and covered their heads, some were hiding behind the flowerbeds. We had to make a quick decision, to run and to enter some door. We wanted to run inside the university, but I was afraid that the door was simply closed. We rushed further on. As we ran, an explosion occurred right behind us, a woman was killed.
We thought about running up to the houses. We just made it there and were caught by the shelling there. A boy nearby was killed, about 10 meters away, and we somehow escaped it. I felt like I covered the daughter with myself because it was supposed to hit her head and back, like that boy, but it hit only her legs.
People took us into the entrance hallway and put us down on the floor. We were lying in blood. I was very scared of the fact that if I lose consciousness there, my child was wounded too... I phoned my mother. My mom and dad took the car and quickly came to us amid all these explosions. They took us out of the entrance hallway and took us away.
I was horrified. My child was running and she was screaming in horror! Eyes full of horror, as she screamed. To see your child in blood...
And what did our mother feel? Imagine, she opens the door to the entrance hall and we are lying on the floor all covered in blood, her daughter and granddaughter. My mother says: ‘I don’t know at all how I managed to cope with it at that moment.’ Everyone was in such a state of shock.
There was one really terrible moment. We were running by a nine-story building and wanted to hide right there, but a shell exploded there. The windowpanes all shattered up to the ninth floor. I just realized that they would all fall upon us then. That was just awful.
You have to decide very quickly for yourself and for the child: to lie down, to run further or go in somewhere... I can't say that it was scary at that moment. I quickly figured it out how to call my mother so that Polina would not stay alone. Because I thought I was done... Later, when we were going in the car, everything was like in slow motion: branches and leaves were flying, people were lying. There was probably such a state of shock. The feeling of horror came later.
At the surgeon's, when I was told that Polina had bleeding that was stopped, then the horror came. Then I truly realized what it was. And this horror stayed inside us for a long time. For a month, my child woke up every night as she had nightmares.
There were many people who were hit by the fragments then. We saw three wounded patients in the operating room. The doctor could hardly cope. He was running [back and forth] and prioritized those whose condition was worse. Surgeons were very good. They did their job. Many thanks to them. They saved so many people in Slovyansk! They did not have sleep there, days and nights, working for several shifts in a row. Medical assistants, surgeons, nursing sisters.
My injury was sort of a torn wound through my entire leg. I had a longer recovery period than my daughter. Both of us had quite severe injuries. She had a fragment that stuck inside and was removed surgically. Naturally, surgical incisions heal faster. My whole cut was a torn wound. We were lucky to remain alive. Miraculously, thank God, we survived.
Polina Maliy, 16 years old:
At first, to be honest, I didn't even know that I was wounded. I just heard an explosion from behind, and pieces of earth fell on my head. I started to run. And then I felt that it was difficult to run. I noticed that blood was running down my legs.
I was probably more afraid for my mom than for myself. She had a severe injury. She says that she lost her consciousness. I felt it.
Then, it was scary at night and in the morning because of the thunderstorm and the lightning. It constantly seemed to me that there was shelling. I started to get up at night, could wake up my mom by my screaming. I started feeling some shooting pain in my leg. I could walk and then clutch my leg suddenly. It could be when at school, it could be at home. Some time after it happened, I was afraid of any explosions: either some fireworks or when the train cars were uncoupled. I was crouching and everyone looked at me. It was very difficult in this sense too.
Natalia Maliy:
My daughter had attacks of strong shooting paint in the leg. She could be walking and then could scream, sit down, clasp her leg. She could jump up at night and scream. She had attacks of shooting pain for a long time, for a year. It could be from the heel to the very top, some sort of nerve impulses. Now they are less frequent, of course, but they still happen.
I heard a lot about the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation. I heard that they helped somebody. They offered us help too! We didn’t address them. They found my mom themselves. My mom called me and said: ‘The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation wants to provide you with a voucher to a sanatorium.’ At first, I did not even believe it that they showed such a care to me. I felt a bit sad that this is something surprising these days. This is a pleasant surprise when someone cares about someone. Like they did when they found us and gave us this voucher! We were prescribed hydromassages and baths. My daughter likes it very much!
Polina Maliy:
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget it. And I can’t say with certainty that I won’t flinch at the fireworks and uncoupling of train cars.
