She received multiple injuries and almost lost her close friends. Such were the consequences of a missile attack on the resort village of Serhiivka in Odesa region for Diana Skalozub.
On the night of 1 July 2022, two missiles hit the peaceful village, destroying a multi-storey residential building and two recreation centres, claiming the lives of 22 people and leaving 38 victims injured.
Before 24 February, there was not understanding in my mind about what the war was. We heard something and followed the news, and I am the one, among a few of my friends and relatives, who said that it was necessary to get a grab bag ready. We needed to prepare, but to prepare for what? I myself did not know and did not understand it.
On 24 February, I had my studies. I studied in Odesa. Then, I woke up from explosions at five o’clock in the morning, lacking understanding of what was happening. There were some reports about some [military] drills, and something else. But how could there be a military drill or training in the city? Then the speech by the president of the russian federation was published, where he announced a special military operation. And then it became clear. We started packing our bags and left for Bilhorod. My grandfather took me because my parents were very worried that I should not take a minibus from the railway station, as it was not safe.
I called my friend Hlib, who was going to go to Odesa. We earlier agreed to go shopping, and I said, “Hlib, we are not going anywhere. The war has begun.” He did not believe it. He said, “Give me five minutes. I don’t understand what is happening.” Then he realized, called me back and was shocked too. We left for Bilhorod. The next day, my parents took my best friend Viktoria and me to Moldova. Every night, we woke up several times during the night and checked the air alarms. We were very worried.
We cried. We wanted to go back home, because it seemed to us that we could somehow control this situation if we were at home.
Well, not so much control, but we could see everything that happened to our near and dear ones. So, when they did not pick up the phone during an air alarm or something of the kind, we felt very bad. We returned because everything was quiet in our city, and we did not want to be a burden for our relatives. We decided to return. We heard some explosions. We heard some incoming missile strikes, but this was not within the city area. It was calm in the city itself. Understandably, we were worried, but we tried to remain calm. We have a team of five friends. Three of us are 21 years old, and two girls are 17-18 years old.
A difficult examination period started for us. The boys graduated from their universities and received their diplomas. I finished my fourth year of studies and there is only one year left ahead. I had a very difficult examination session and I wanted to have some rest after it, to have at least some nice rest time. The girls also had some events... One of them passed an exam to get the driving licence, and the other one had a difficult examination session at the medical university. We decided to have some rest and spend a couple of days at a recreation centre in Serhiivka, where there are no military facilities, no checkpoints, nothing of the kind. The quietest place. Our parents let all of us go there because they were sure that everything would be fine.
We came to the recreation centre on 29 June. Everything was fine, quiet, and calm. We were having our rest. The only thing is that on 30 June, my parents, especially my mother, called me and said, “Take a shelter when air alarms are on.” She was very worried, and she was generally upset to know that we went there for two days. For some reason, she thought that we went there for one day. The atmosphere was mainly calm and quiet. There were many small children at the recreation centre. The situation there was the calmest one. On the night of 1 July, we simply went to our rooms.
As always, we decided to spend some time on our phones before going to sleep. I was turned away from the window, and at one moment, everything just blacked out for me. There was a taste of TNT in my mouth. There was no lighting, nothing. I thought we were under the rubble. I thought, “It’s good that I have a phone in my hands, as I can call my dad. And the main thing is that we have enough air – we will be rescued.” At one point, the lights went off abruptly and only the screen of the phone was on. That is, I saw and understood what was happening. But then something fell on my head. That is why I thought that we were under the rubble.
I touched my forehead – my whole face was already covered in blood. My phone did not respond to any touch. I only managed to turn on the flashlight.
Then, when my friends started calling me, I realized that we were not under the rubble. I checked the space and surrounding air with my hand, and we began to move out into the corridor to meet there. My boyfriend Oleksiy, who was in one room with me, had an open fracture of his leg – a fracture of his shin-bone and his calf-bone too. Clearly, he could not walk. I did not understand what happened to him.
We met with our friends in the hallway. I shouted, saying that we needed to get out of there. And then another strike occurred. As we learned it later, this time, it hit the nine-storey building. Then we somehow went outside, using only one flashlight, and started calling everyone we could: 101 telephone line, our parents, everyone. Then we just had to wait. We were very worried about everything. It was very scary. It was not clear how many more missiles could strike.
At that moment, there was a feeling when you don’t know whether you will survive or not. You don’t know what’s with your friends. Very scary.
When we walked out, we met a boy. At that moment, I thought for some reason that it was some boy who ran over from outside. While in fact, he was from the administrative building, which was opposite. As far as I remember, two people survived, and this boy was one of them. He also wanted to call his parents, as he was not with his parents at the recreation centre, but with his godparents. So everybody started giving phone calls... We sat on the ground. I started feeling very cold because of big blood loss. We tried our best not to blacken out. We controlled each other. With my friend Hlib, we held hands, because it was very difficult to speak.
His lung almost ruptured, and then, we were just waiting. Due to the pain shock, I did not understand what was with my face. It seemed to me that my cheek was torn, and the like. When all four of us went outside, and my boyfriend remained in that building, we shouted to him from time to time, to understand whether he was conscious and whether he was alive. Then, at one point, he stopped answering, and my friend, she was the most mobile of us, as she could walk, ran to check if he was alive. Thank God, he was conscious, but he could no longer hear or respond.
When we realized that we could have died, then my morale was much shaken, and basically, I realized that life is very fragile.
That is why until now, I have been staying abroad in order to come to my sense a little, morally, because it was very difficult to endure that anxiety and stress, especially when you hear incoming missile strikes. This is just terrible. We were taken to the hospital and I spent about three weeks there.
As for the injuries, they included a rupture of the eardrum, shell shock, concussion, multiple lacerated wounds on the body, torso, limbs, and face. Thank God, the bones were not damaged, but there were still a lot of injuries. Nails, big metal nails, were taken out from a large scar on the leg, below the buttock. That is, on the first day, when they operated at night, they took out about one and a half kilograms of glass and fragments of various building materials.
There are still a lot of pieces of glass taken out. A big one was taken out of my side, and some more from my legs. There are still many pieces of glass. And to make the legs look a bit better, there is still a lot to go through. When I was discharged from the hospital, I realized that I needed to do something next. I came across a post on Instagram about a plastic surgeon, whose name is Artur and who was ready to help people from Serhiivka restore their beauty. I contacted him. He immediately responded and helped me, for which I am very thankful to him. We are very glad.
I dream of the soonest victory of Ukraine, and then all other dreams will begin to come true. I want a peaceful life. I want to do what I did before 24 February. I definitely believe in victory. Our victory will come, and will be very soon. I believe it with all my heart.
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