Stories that you confided to us
"Explosions are deafening. You can't hear anything for two or three days"
You can't get used to shelling. It gets very scary if something heavy hits you hard. Windows rattle, everything shakes. It is terrifying.
The first heavy shelling happened before the New Year in 2015. Now things seem to settle. One day, we heard an explosion all of a sudden. It happened at 09:00 or 10:00 p.m. Something strange began to happen. It got dark.There was smoke and dust everywhere. We got scared and ran out into the street. We saw a shell sticking out of the wall. It pierced it through.
The Emergencies estimated the damage. They pulled it out. Thank God it hit the hall, the entrance to the house, and not the house itself. We were saved by the fact that our house is old and solid.
We got another hit in the same spot in 2017. Half a roof was destroyed. We repaired what we could on our own. It's still leaking now, because fragments still hit from time to time.
2015 - 2016 were terrible years. It was scary to even go out to the garden. Once I went out to the garden in a dressing gown when they started shooting at me. I fell down and started crawling out of the garden. Can you imagine that?
They were firing 300-400 meters away from our positions on the other side. They shelled the area very hard in 2014 and 2015. The used mines and shells. We have 16 or 17 shell craters there, just in the ground. Who knows, maybe some shell holes still have something in them. The area began to grow over with weeds. But we can't go in there to cultivate it. Well, we cultivate every peace of land that is safe.
People went to doctors only if they have injuries. No one goes to the hospital if they have contusions. When you hear an explosion, it deafens you. You can't hear anything for two or three days. This is also a concussion. You walk around and don't know what's going on. I sometimes have severe headaches for no reason.
The area around burns every summer. When shelling starts, the grass begins to burn. The fire often reaches us. There were times when it got to houses. Fire vehicles don't even come here. Ambulances were allowed to come here only two years ago. They didn't come here before.
Before the war, I worked as a milkmaid on a collective farm. When it got hard, I got into trade. My husband was engaged in it a little. We kept horses. We had a private farm.
Then he started working as a loader in the market. So we were left without jobs. You can't find a job anywhere in Marinka any more. All the businesses closed down.
Thank God, the collective farm still functions. Well, there is Zelenstroi — a communal repair and construction enterprise. But there are no other businesses. They are all closed. We can't find jobs, because we are of pre-retirement age. No one needs old workers.
We live in Marinka. So when we are under attack, we can't risk our lives and go to work. No one needs such workers that don't often come to work.
There were a lot of people here. And now there is only a bunch of us left here. We have five yards left on this street, and a little on upper street.
I want peace and quiet. I wish we weren't afraid to go outside. I wish we didn't have to wonder whether they will shoot or not.
When quoting a story, a reference to the source – the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation – is mandatory, as follows:
The Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation https://civilvoicesmuseum.org/
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