1/6/2024 0 Comments This war of mine survivors![]() Ukrainians find shelter in an underground subway station in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 10, 2022. We took food to places under constant shelling. We, the homeless and the staff, helped unload them and distributed goods around the city. Trains that evacuated people to the west came back with supplies. The homeless began using the shelter supplies to make hot food for the families who were hiding in the underground metro stations because of the constant bombardment. Only three of us stayed because there were 20 residents who did not want to go. At the beginning, the air-raid sirens were nonstop it was unreal. My daughter-in-law gave birth early the following day due to stress. We didn’t believe a war could start, even when we woke at 4 a.m. There were modern parks and many tourists-it was developing. Kharkiv was bombarded with missiles for months, leaving parts of it destroyed, while much of the region was Russian-occupied for more than six months.īefore the war, Kharkiv was full of young people because there were a lot of universities the polytechnic alone had 20,000 students. Vladymir Balabanov, 60, worked in a homeless shelter in Kharkiv and, before that, in an orphanage. Vladymir Balabanov, 60, is pictured at a homeless shelter in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Vladymir Balabanov stands in front of a building. We never wanted massacre fame, and now we’ll do everything possible to make our city known for something else. ![]() Bucha was one of the most comfortable places to live in Ukraine. I make more time to see and call my family now. We’re still worried they could come back, though, because we always hear there could be an attack from Belarus. I got on my bike and did a tour of the city and found only Ukrainian military. Two days later, there were rumors the enemy troops had left. He had to call his wife, so he climbed up to the ninth floor to get a better signal and saw a column of Russian tanks firing. We found out later the captain we were waiting for was FSB. Some of those who were captured were taken to Kursk (in Russia). There were others down there, but I don’t know what happened to them. The next morning, six of us managed to escape from the basement they kept us in overnight. The funeral of a civilian military volunteer killed in action is held at a church in Lviv, western Ukraine, on April 12, 2022. I knew people were shot in the forest many have still not been found. Soldiers talked among themselves, saying they could take us to the forest. We waited hours for a captain to interrogate us, but he never came. ![]() They accused us of being territorial defense. They tied our hands and put bags on our heads. On March 15, me and some other volunteers were waiting for evacuation and supply buses when Russian soldiers came. ![]() People who lived through this time call me all the time just to talk-those who didn’t experience it can’t understand. ![]() My friend died after he looked over his balcony and a sniper shot him. I feel a lot of hate, because killing was a game for Russians. I think it was an order to destroy our people. The bodies were left lying there they didn’t allow us to take them. I have access to CCTV-they were just shooting pedestrians who were crossing the road. They told us that if you mark yourself as a civilian with a white bandage, you will not be killed. Russians moved farther into the city on Feb. They said they had tried to leave Bucha, but soldiers in the suburbs started shooting. The driver, his wife, and kids were injured. The first sign I saw of Russian presence in Bucha was on Feb. When Ukraine retook the city, evidence of Russia’s mass killings was unearthed. An early Russian offensive to take the capital, Kyiv, saw nearby Bucha turned into the front line. 19, 2022.ĭmytro Hapchenko, 45, has worked for the Bucha City Council since 2015 and took on the role of manager of affairs in 2021. Workers carry body bags to refrigerated containers following an exhumation in Izium, Ukraine, on Sept. ![]()
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