February 27, 2022 That day turned out to be more frightening than the 24th. We still slept in the house, despite the fact that the battle was going on not far away, in Hostomel. Frightening explosions were going off all the time. The morning of the 27th began with Dad telling everyone to quickly go down to the cellar because the battle was getting closer. …
A garage on Yablunytsia in Bucha. Tracks from rascist tanks and a tanker car marked «soviet railways»… And the garage where civilian women and men were hiding. The rascist soldiers closed the garage and threw a grenade through the ventilation slot… The remains of burned bodies… That’s all that was left of people who were simply hiding from the enemy. Today, the …
The story of a photograph. This boy in the Bucha refrigeration unit next to all the bodies has probably been seen in the most distant corners of the world, far from Ukraine. His name is Ihor, he’s 24 and it turns out that we once lived on neighboring streets for many years. He’s one of those volunteers who went to Bucha after it was de-occupied to collect the bodies …
When I touch an old woman’s shoulder and lightly stroke it, leading her to a tent where French criminologists are gathering all the information about those whose relatives are seeking them and where they take DNA samples, tears well up in her eyes. And I understand that it is better not to touch anyone else and not to express sympathy or support in any way. Otherwise, all their …
Coming home It seems that, for me, this is the most difficult piece of writing. To describe not the first days of war, not evacuating under bullets, not surviving the brutality that has been crawling onto the surface, not life far away and the all-consuming, aching longing for home. All this time, you keep falling—into a long, long, never-ending hell. But …
Be careful, the doors are closing, the next stop is Borodyanka. Nowadays everybody is like an open wound. And that is why we are grasping for these straws, like the repost of the picture of Angelina Jolie with the boy (or girl) because it feels like healing with antibiotics ointment. But the thing is that this treatment does not work for shell wounds. It is very joyful how …
On March 04, Yevhen and I and our basement-mates made an attempt to flee from war-torn Bucha in our two cars, and failed. We drove up to Irpin, which is about 5−7 minutes from our shelter. Russian occupiers greeted us with rounds of fire from their ambush position. My husband managed to turn off into an alley, but the car I was driving was hit directly in the hood from a grenade …
