Serhii spent five years in the ATO. At the beginning of the invasion, he was in Chornobyl, so he didn’t have time to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine or the Territorial Defence Forces – the enemy had already entered his native Ivankiv. The occupiers immediately took Serhii to the basement. He was kept in the cold for four days. Then he was brought home for a day. And then he was detained again. 

He and six other men were tied up, blindfolded and loaded into a KAMAZ truck. Instead of the promised shooting, they were dumped in the Chornobyl zone. Some were naked, others were barefoot. The men managed to get to an industrial facility, find shoes and something to eat. Then there was an unsuccessful attempt to return to Ivankiv through the swamps. As a result, the men again found themselves in the sights of machine guns – they were not allowed to return to their homes. The difficult journey ended in Chornobyl, where the men waited for liberation.