‘Pick up the kid, there are tanks in the town’

Yevhen, 9 years old:

I saw shooting at the houses. Then, mines were landing and exploding. People die because of that. The war is a horror. It is shelling, bombs hit people and kill them. It happens like in a horror movie.

I saw some fire. I saw how the swing and the store were hit. It was scary. We were running to the garage. We stayed in the garage for a week. Then, we came home and saw this horror. Our house was destroyed.

Oksana Demchenko, 40 years old:

When the war began, my term was six months of pregnancy. When the war began, it was all very stressful obviously. There was a heavy shelling here. We have a garage behind the house and a cellar in that garage. Our kids and we lived there for a week. We cooked food and baked some bread on open fire.

I was pregnant and it all affected me. That is why my baby was born seemingly healthy, but there was intrauterine asphyxia. The baby lived for a week and died. I was told that those were the consequences of staying in the cellars.

Because of dampness, moisture, I should not have stayed there. But where could I take myself?

It was very difficult. Firstly, I did not think about myself. I have two children. I thought about the kids, how to save them, how to cover them. My husband and I did not think about ourselves at that moment at all. It was very difficult and very scary. I cannot describe it. Even now, when time has passed, I am still scared. When we were in other town, fireworks started and the kids were hiding under a blanket. They were afraid of it.

Our elder son then studied at school in Pervomaisk. It was the end of the school year. Our teacher called me and said:

‘Come urgently and pick up your kid. There are tanks in the town.’

There was no telephone connection, it was cut off. We rushed to Pervomaisk and picked up our child. From that very day a real horror began. We were so much confused and lost… We did not expect this to happen to us. We did not expect that our settlement would be in such a difficult and terrible situation.

There was no water supply. Only some process water (technical water) was running. At first, there was not any water at all. There was no electricity supply. The telephone was off and it was not possible to charge it anywhere. We were bringing our telephones to the mine (to work) to be able to get in touch with relatives. We stayed without power supply, without anything. Back then, aircrafts were flying. It was horrible. Our biggest fear was when aircrafts were flying because in case of a direct hit that could be our end. We stayed in the cellar. My husband made kind of a shelf there and we slept on it. We cooked on open fire and even baked some bread on fire.

The worst thing was when the phosphorus bombs were flying. When that phosphorus flew, everything was burning. When they were flying, many people fled and just left their homes behind, without taking anything from home. It all happened in the middle of the night.

We got up in the morning and some people were gone, they all left at night.

Those bombs illuminate and flashes appear in the sky. They are like melting plastic simply drop from the sky and burn out what can be burned out. It’s very scary.

After that we left the next day. We had such a big fear! Our friends’ children even ceased to speak. They were able to speak at two or three years old and then they ceased speaking. I was afraid that our kid could have similar psychological trauma, God forbid. We were very worried. Although many people said: ‘There was no need for you to leave.’ But all that was done for the sake of the children.

Our building was hit by shells. One shell hit the playground. Many apartments were completely destroyed, literally in the next entrance, next building section. We managed to escape that, but all our windows were blown out. The apartment was left without windows. Here Shakhtarska Street was hit hard. It was in 2015.

What shall we say about the repairs? We are not going to do that yet. It makes no sense. God forbid, something happens again. To throw money down the drain. It is very difficult now, both morally and financially.

There is something to strive for. I am raising my kids. Now they go to school. I forget that we have the war going on here. It somehow becomes a bit easier amid all this fuss. There is an inner fear, when you go to bed, shots are still heard somewhere. It is impossible to describe it. It’s just fear and horror. Just awful. I want it to end as soon as possible.