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We’re having a hard time here, there is shellfire every night. You can have your day as usual. As soon as the evening falls, it starts. When darkness falls, they start shooting.
Everything is destroyed. In 2014, we didn’t have any power supply for as long as seven months, then they made the connection. Initially, our settlement was power fed from Staromykhailivka. But then Staromykhailivka was occupied and they didn’t want to connect us anywhere. Later, they connected our settlement, but the voltage was really low, we couldn’t even watch TV, it was enough only for lamps. We bought a voltage stabilizer. It got a bit better.
And there is no water. In the tap, it’s either dark blue, or brown, it’s not safe to drink. We don’t use it for cooking or drinking, we only buy all water. I’ve got problems with kidneys, with blood pressure, I am in a bad health.
It’s hard to live here, in Krasnohorivka.
I am a post-war person. I am from Russia, the surroundings of Stalingrad were nothing but scorched earth. In this area, I have lived for a really long time, more than 60 years now. I never thought I’d have to live through another war.
Today, we don’t have any jobs in Krasnohorivka. All local facilities stand in ruins. We had a huge brick-making plant, well, it’s not working anymore. There were two plants like this across the entire Soviet Union. And now, that’s the way it is.
The biggest question is when this war will come to an end. As soon as the night falls, shooting starts. I keep praying, that’s all.
Outside, in the yard, we have installed a flue and bought a small cast-iron stove. We burn wood in the stove, don’t have enough money for coal, you can’t really afford any coal with the monthly income of three thousand hryvnias. We’ve bought a lot of wood in stock. In the evening, I was sitting, it was nice and quiet, there was no reason to expect anything. And suddenly one shell landed, then another one, and another one. I was raking some coals in the stove and that’s when I felt something burning me really hard! I thought some coals had fallen out of the stove and burnt me. But then I realized, there was something sticky on me. I got wounded as it appeared. This happened on 1 March 2017. Shrapnel.
I got to the hospital on my own, by car, because that evening the bombing was really intense and naturally nobody was willing to come here. From the hospital, they took me to Kurakhove and made a surgery there.
And when a shell landed on our house and exploded on the roof, I got contused. The roof was crashed right through. The only thing that saved me on that day was that the roof beams are cross-laid so one beam took most of that hit by a shell fragment. The explosion was really powerful. I was thrown off. I got my arm broken and I couldn’t hear for 10 days. Well, never mind.
I am not able to walk up to the cellar. We don’t have our own one, and it’s hard for me to walk to the cellar on the other side. I take a blanket, lie down on the floor and stay like this. That’s all my escape. I won’t go anywhere, I won’t move away. I’ve been staying here for all these four years, my husband and I haven’t gone away even for a day.
Of course, we want this to end, we want the best for Ukraine. I think I will see peace come here someday. I want to live my life in peace – that’s what I want, I want it so much.
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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