Karina, Severodonetsk/Lutsk

And at 6 a.m. on February 24, our mutual boss called my boyfriend and said that the war had started and we urgently needed to come to work. Our men ran to solve problems with the leadership of the region, and the girls decided to go to the ATM and shops, so as not to sit just like that. Lord, I’ll never forget the morning city in panic and terrible fuss, queues everywhere. I heard the first explosions at 9.30 and realized that the nightmare had begun.
We didn’t leave the city right away.

Firstly, because of work: we tried to help people until the last moment.
Secondly, the guy’s kidney problems worsened and recently had surgery on his jaw. I still blame myself for not leaving right away, I should have spat and gone. We would have gotten there somehow.
On February 28, a shell exploded 20 meters from our house, windows flew out in the apartment. We were just there. That was the last straw. We found volunteers, and we were taken to Rubezhnoye (15 km from Severodonetsk) to my relatives. A cat, laptops, two backpacks with medicines and documents — they didn’t take things, only what we were wearing, and a change of underwear.

Two weeks in Rubezhnoye were hell. At the beginning of March, Russian troops entered, and fighting for the city began. We did not leave the basement, there were constant shelling. The Russians deliberately destroyed the entire infrastructure, on March 9, light, water and communications disappeared. And still they are not there.

Shells flew into neighboring houses, the factory was burning, the smoke was a pillar. It was so scary, what words cannot convey. We wanted to leave, but no one wanted to go to this hell, and we don’t have our own transport. On March 13, the shelling was so strong that I said goodbye to my life. I cried in the basement and prayed: “God help us. If there is even one chance to survive, give it to us. I’m so scared, but if I get out, I’ll find a way to thank you, Lord.
I will try to be useful to people.” I remember my prayer verbatim. At 12 o’clock in the afternoon, my daughter-in-law’s father came to the basement and said that his sister would arrive in five minutes, she had two seats in the car. We left, even the cat was saved.

Now we are in Western Ukraine with relatives. They managed to snatch my mother from Rubezhny, too: I miraculously reached her I got through and explained how to get to the evacuation bus.

An elderly woman ran under fire to these buses. Brother and daughter-in-law other relatives took it out. I was lucky: we managed to escape from hell, I even managed to get the cat out. No one died or was injured in front of my eyes. I have a place to live, I have everything I need. Every minute I I think about those who stayed in hell, where the orcs rule. Rare calls from rubezhan is forced to cry with horror: people are starving, Russian (we have the truth more LNRovskie) troops are looting and destroying the homes of all the objectionable. There is no water, light, gas for almost a month. Hospitals, schools, maternity hospitals, shops and pharmacies are almost all destroyed. Residential buildings have long been ruins.
The shelling is daily and terrible. The dead are no longer buried, it’s too dangerous. I’ve run out of words to describe this horror. In Western Ukraine, there are constant air alarms, I will never forget this gut-wrenching sound.

I don’t expect to go home. Severodonetsk and Rubezhnoye they are constantly being bombed, it is unlikely that anything will survive there. And we just bought

an apartment and made repairs. I have a wonderful library left, I have been collecting it for many years. There are almost 300 volumes, and there are very old and rare books. But the property can be bought, and I’m not really about it I’m upset. Only one thought in my head constantly: “Creatures, what are you
doing?! There are people there!!! Do you understand? There are people there! They’re still alive!
Stop this madness, we will rebuild everything, we will buy everything. But there are people there!”
I’m crying again.