‘My friend’s last word were: ‘I think I am dying’

My name is Oleksandr Yalovyi. I live in Avdiivka town. I have been living here since my birth. Everything used to be fine. I made my studies, worked, made a military service in Lozova town, Kharkiv region. Everything seemed fine, but then the war came to our land and everything went head over heels.

Our town is quite friendly. We used to have a lot of people, many kids running around, schools and kindergartens. When the war began, some people left, some people took their children. I feel uneasy at heart. There is a feeling of fear because you do not know what to expect, at what moment some mischief can happen.

I raised my head. My friend was lying nearby alive. I asked him: ‘How are you?’ ‘Is everything ok?’ I said. ‘Hold on’. Just literally a minute passed. The last words were: ‘I think I am dying’. On my hands and before my eyes.

I was just lying on my back. The only part I could lift up was my head. Then an ambulance came and it was quite prompt. The shellfire continued. They were shelling, but the driver and the doctor knew their business well. They were not scared when it whistled and exploded. They pulled us into the ambulance and took us to the hospital in Avdiivka.

And in the hospital we were told: ‘We have just been shelled. We do not have power supply. Go to Dymytrov.’ And so, they had to take me to Dymytrov.

A shell fragment got into my right leg above the knee. It was literally one centimetre above the knee cap, and it broke the bone. As for my left leg, the calf muscle was torn out, it was cut to the bone. I had a fracture of the pelvis. A fragment entered my gluteus muscle, broke my pelvis, moved further inside, pierced the urinary and small intestine. My fingers were broken too, maybe as a result of falling.

I stayed in bed for half a year – my muscles atrophied and that is why it was necessary to load and stretch it all anew.

The worst thing was when I came to Avdiivka… I was a lying-down case. I did not stand up. I could just hold myself up with my hands a little bit. And the worst thing was when the shelling began. I could not go anywhere. I was on the second floor and… Well, it was scary, to cut it short. And the basement was only in the neighbouring building. It meant I had to go out and walk at least 150 meters.

My friend’s name was Serhiy Kruglenko. I recall him almost every day because I walk past the house where he lived. And I don’t visit that site, I go around it.

He worked as a mechanic and I worked at the coke-oven battery. We lived close to each other and used to go to school together. He was twenty-five.

I feel sorry for those people who suffered. Pensioners who cannot restore anything, say, to repair a fence or install the window panes.

I hope that all this will end and children will return to their hometown. They will be growing here and will be developing the town. Because there is plenty of work to be done here. Nobody will work for a penny, only those who really need it, those for whom this land is dear, for whom it is their homeland.