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Voices of war
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‘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.

‘Russian soldiers stopped the car with bread, threw the bread out and ran over it with their car. So that people would have nothing to eat’

A resident from Kherson tells how the city lived during the first days of the Russian occupation.

‘Children, I won’t be able to teach the lesson because the war has started’

Oksana is a teacher of Russian language and literature. When Mariupol was shelled, she felt as if her heart was turning into a small bird. It was painful to look at the blackened houses and the faces of the neighbors that faded from the war and seemed to have been erased.

‘A soldier must be a coward and, when necessary, a hero’

Oleksandr, the code name “Typhoon”, has been fighting since the age of 24. Having survived captivity after Ilovaisk, he will not be captured again.

Mariupol. ‘A sniper killed my husband’

We spoke with Olha Leus from Mariupol at the YaMariupol center in Lviv, where the Kharkiv human rights group came to help Mariupol residents who live in Lviv after leaving their hometown.

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