Wife Liudmyla Diadkina:
The war… I never thought at all that I would be going through all this in the 21st century, to be honest. This is scary. You go to bed and you don’t know what will be tomorrow, what will happen in a minute. Everything around you is just not stable. First of all, these are worries about the children, that they are healthy and well fed.
We stayed in the basements and it was very cold there. Everyone on the floor, on top of each other, on concrete. It is very hard and indescribable.
We ran down to our basement. Volodymyr, my husband, could go out from time to time to take some food in order to feed the children. And when it became calmer, we went back home. We came down to the basement for the night because it was very scary and also in order not to wake up the kids all the time in the middle of the night. And when it began to hit close on our street and the neighbouring street severely, we then ran to the bomb shelter if it was possible.
This is very scary, especially with small kids. It is probably not possible to express it in words. Only those who went through this, who experienced this first-hand, can understand it. You do not think about anything then. Only how to faster take cover in some safe place where it would be quiet and safe for your children.
I took Matviy, held him close tight and we ran, while their dad took our middle daughter, and the eldest one ran by herself. We ran while it was quiet not to be caught by shellfire on the way. It was scary, for sure. I felt a bit calmer only when we reached the bomb shelter.
The children were small and the younger ones did not really understand it. The eldest daughter was scared, surely. She ran to me at every explosion and hugged me. She said: ‘Mom, I am scared.’ I soothed her, of course. I told her that it was far away and that everything would be fine, that it won`t hit our place, but the kid was still worried, sure thing. It was terrible at her age to be staying in the basements and bomb shelters from the middle of summer.
I was looking at the kids and thinking that I could hardly find strength to run to the basement at every explosion. I thought it was time to put it an end so that the kids could live without fear. My husband and I discussed it and decided to leave. We heard about resettlement. We hoped for Lord’s help. At least, that it would not be worse than what we went through there.
So, we came here and turned to the executive committee of the local council in Sviatohirsk. One kind man wrote us a telephone number and gave us the address of the camp. We phoned there and they came for us. It was the time when they just started to accept residents of Debaltseve and resettle, accommodate people.
We need to get settled down, need to get the kids enrolled to the kindergarten, to school, and need to find a job. God willing, everything will be fine and there will be peace.
Husband, Volodymyr Diadkin:
Earlier, shells did land nearby, but they touched Debaltseve only a little. People were not so scared. In case of mortar shells and fragments, you can lie down on the floor when you are in the house, while when rockets from Grad rocket launcher hit, only the foundation remains from the house.
We were shown what was the shellfire in Horlivka… The asphalt was damaged there, the windowpanes were shattered. While we have pits, craters as deed as my two-meter height and four meters in diameter. I don’t know what kind of rockets fall upon a house if they destroy it completely.
You are just petrified. You don’t know what to do. It is scary to go somewhere or to stay. And what is to be done? The kids are small. You wish to close your eyes and wake up... You don’t believe that this happened, no one thought it could.
We left in summer when there was an assault on Debaltseve. Before Artemivsk, we stayed in a neighbouring village Luhanske. We lived in the hospital. Then, all people came back and peaceful life seemed to be restoring. We thought that everything would be fine. An armistice was concluded, while in fact there was none.
Enterprises did not work anymore. After Debaltseve was shelled on the day of the Epiphany, everyone was released from work and nothing is operational since then. There are districts where dead bodies lie, in the private houses area, and no one takes them out. Or people die because there are no teams of doctors or those who confirm death in the town.
It was a hard survival for us together with the children. It is indescribable, very hard. There was a constant feeling of fear and the hands were trembling. You do not know if you will survive, what will happen to your children, how?
It was Monday, last week. We were staying in the basement. Shells exploded. And we did not know the outcome and thought we might be buried there. So, we decided: come what may. Shells and Grad rockets were coming from all directions, it was not clear from where. There was no power supply for one week and no water, nothing. I had small kids. There was a risk that we could be caught by shellfire along the way. But the risk ratio was justified – either to escape or to die there.
It looked like smouldering ruins. I saw burnt houses near my house, where only the foundation remained. I saw fragments, shattered glass in my house too, people in fear, in shock and frightened children. This is horrible.
When we were leaving, we could afford it financially. The buses did not run then. At that time people were not evacuated yet. There were no volunteers. We took a taxi driven by a friend and came here. We came exhausted after a travel while it was snowing.
I keep in touch through a friend of mine. He left for Odesa in the summer and now he lives and works there. And his mother stayed, she doesn't want to go anywhere. I have a dog left there, so she looks after it and feeds it. So far, our house seemed to be intact, but yesterday they shelled so hard that she could leave the bomb shelter neither yesterday nor today.
A six-storey building where the bomb shelter is was hit by rockets several times. It has burned down, but the bomb shelter is intact. People stay without power supply and without water, while we are in a private houses area and we have a water well there. We can get out, crawl and get some water there, while in the bomb shelter there are no water pipes, no water well, nothing.
Now, we have a feeling of confusion inside us. We don’t know how to live here as we cannot live in the camp forever. Children need to study, to go to kindergarten and I need to go to work and support my family. We will not be able to stay here forever, but we hardly believe that we will be able to come back home. There are no jobs there. Even if the house is intact, how to live there?
I hold up well thinking of my kids and my wife. A hope for the best gives some relief.
