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Voices of war
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‘They burned down the house in front of the neighbor’

Step by step, Aniuta Myronets, a pensioner from Velyka Dymerka, is restoring everything the Russians destroyed. She borrowed money to patch the house and clean up the yard. While she was evacuated, Russian soldiers lived in her home. They kicked out the neighbor from her place and burned it down in front of her.

‘My three-year-old son says: Putin should be buried in his bunker — then there will be no war’

Teacher Alina Veshchuk lived in Horlivka (Donetsk Region) until 2015. Then she fled the occupation to Kramatorsk. In 2022, history repeated itself again... She says that back in 2014 she already understood how the enemy was fighting: “Friends saw “Grad” (multiple rocket launcher) drove into the field, shoot at Toretsk, where the Ukrainian army was, then this “Grad” turned around and shot then back at Horlivka: the enemy wanted people in Horlivka to think that it was Ukrainian army shot back at them”.

The Russians shelled the cellars in which people were hiding

Kateryna Rakhmatulina was not evacuated from Velyka Dymerka because she could hardly walk. They hid in the cellar with her eldest grandson, and the house above them bounced from constant shelling. Their neighbor was shot because he refused to give the Russians his sneakers. Catherine says that it was a miracle that she did not die.

‘We were nothing and nobody. We were a human shield for the Russians’

Nadiia Korcheva is from the village of Zalissia. Her blind sister died in a nearby house from hunger and cold. Nadiia was able to bury her only after the de-occupation. The Russians smashed everything around, robbed homes, mined vegetable gardens, and put up land mines. “But I carried on propaganda with them. I tried to convince them to surrender. I talked about our state,” — says the brave woman.

‘My husband and daughter wanted to get to Brovary on foot’

Valentyna Bas, a resident of Zalissia village, went to work in Brovary on 8 March. On the same day, her village was occupied by the Russians. The woman tried in vain to rescue her family. In desperation, Valentyna's husband and daughter decided to walk to Brovary, but Russian soldiers detained them.

In the shelter, my daughter cared for her toy

Olena Poliakova is from Kharkiv, Saltivka [a large residential district]. She talks about the courage of the eleventh graders who rushed to help the victims. About life under shelling in the school basement. About the driver who took a chance and miraculously evacuated them to the station. Despite the nightmare she survived, the trauma, and two surgeries, she hopes that Kharkiv will recover and become even better.

‘It felt like the Lord salvaged people’

From the beginning of the war, the son of Liana Florynska from Vyshhorod [Kyiv Region] was engaged in volunteer activities. He miraculously managed to stay alive when the Red Cross car came under mortar fire. Liana herself almost became a victim of the Russian bombing. She left the house a few minutes before the shell hit her apartment building.

‘Go away and don’t come back’

Olha Lasa says that after the occupation of the village Velyka Dymerka, the Russians drove a tank into her garden and hid in the cellar, kicking her, the owner, out into the street. A large hospitable house, where children and grandchildren visited, burned down.

‘I looked at him and saw that he had no arm...’ — a resident of Makariv urban-type settlement tells how the invaders killed his grandson

Yurii Pladko is a pensioner from Makariv (Buchanskyi district, Kyiv Region). The war brought much grief to his family. The man tells about the invaders: “They didn’t look who was there — child or adult — they just shot whoever they wanted...”

‘I dream about Ukraine victory’

Mariupol is one of the main symbols of the Russian army's war crimes in Ukraine. The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group is engaged in documenting crimes and helping the victims. Oleksandra Netkacheva survived many shellings of the city. Unfortunately, her husband was injured during one of them and died in the hospital.

‘Couple of men were sitting drinking tea in the kitchenette. A shell fell there and they were just torn apart. The soldiers buried them right in the vegetable garden...’

Pensioner Mykola Perepelytsia lives in Krasnopillia (Donetsk region). His village has been subjected to numerous airstrikes. He says: “An aircraft came every morning, smashing houses and tearing down roofs”.

‘Just not in the belly: if they hit me, at least the child will be saved’

Oleksandra lived in the Mykolaiv region. By 24 February, she was 32 weeks pregnant. Together with her husband, they moved to the hospital where they worked, but the Russians shelled it too. The woman with the baby was forced to go down to the basement 12 times only 36 hours after giving birth.

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