Four graduates lived on the first floor. There is an inscription there, "God, take care of Avdiivka." Many people have already left. Many went to other schools.
Water supply and electricity in Avdiivka were cut off. It lasted for the whole year. There was a water station nearby. People came to get some water in bottles. There was a queue from the basement to the end of the road. There were about 500 people who joined the queue.
On 10 November 2014, my husband and I went to school with our daughter, who is also a teacher. He took bottles. There were so many of them here. He went here across the road. People were standing along the fence and poured water with the hoses. Everyone brought water. The queue was so long that people started quarreling here and there. Then shells began to fall.
First, they got to the coloured house. People were still standing in a queue. They were confused. Some people started running into the house, some huddled against the fence when the second, third, fourth shells flew. They hit basements and destroyed them. They got into this house. Half of the house was destroyed. The coloured house was destroyed entirely. Shells were falling one by one without a break.
People, including my husband, got confused and started running. He started running too. People lay down on the grass. Maybe that saved their lives. There were a lot of people lying there. There were many wounded and dead people lying around. A woman lay with her arms, legs cut off.
There is a school nearby. We heard some terrible explosions coming from the school. We did not let the children go. We took them to the lobby and hid behind the wall. It was thick, because there was another wall behind it. We thought that might work, and the children won't get hurt. And they did not let the children go until their parents came for them.
At this time, my former student ran and said, "Don't worry, your husband is injured, not killed."
I ran. I ran fast. My grandson was carrying him in his arms. And all the dead are lying near it. And he raised his hand like that, "I'm alive", so that they wouldn't load the corpse on the car. I ran to him, but he was already gone, loaded and taken to the hospital. I went there.
But most importantly, when the grandson picked him up, just picked him up and carried him away, two shells immediately exploded. They exploded right where these wounded men who managed to crawl away were lying. A minute later, he wouldn't have been able to move him any further. And grandson would have been killed. He was already finished off on the spot.
It was such a horror. There are no such words to describe it in Russian. There was smoke everywhere. Ambulances arrived there and took the wounded to the hospital. The hospital was also broken. So they sent us to some small building nearby. There were so many wounded people.
Even all... people hid in the entrance and in the basement. The basements were not properly equipped. And when people went there all at once, fragments from a shell also flew there and hit people. Some got them in the eyes, others in the arms or legs.
We took him to the hospital, but there were no surgeons there. Everyone had left. There were no doctors. There was one reception point, but there were a lot of people.
I've never seen so much grief in my life. Never. Lord forbid you should see it.
When my husband was brought to the hospital, the doctor said, "We cannot do anything about it. The entire leg, the entire femur is crushed above the knee. We can't help him. Go to Krasnoarmiisk." When we came there, they told us they did not do such operations. So we went to Dnipropetrovsk. Thank God, they admitted us at 10:30 p.m.
It is very difficult for residents of Avdiivka. But the biggest help we receive comes from Rinat Akhmetov. He sends humanitarian aid. All old people get necessary things. We are very grateful to him. I and many residents of Avdiivka have a feeling that we are not alone with this grief. We have people who support us.
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