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Voices of war
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‘Words cannot express what we experienced,’ — a resident of the village of Zahaltsi

Olena Shevchenko lives in the village of Zahaltsi, Kyiv Region. Together with her grandchildren, the woman endured several weeks under endless shelling. People were hiding in the basement, and everything outside was on fire.

‘I saw a plane drop a bomb on my house’

Oksana Halchenko is a resident of Borodianka. She says that the Russians fired at houses from tanks if they saw someone in the window. The woman evacuated after her home was destroyed. Her sister spent a month under occupation, refusing the “attractive” offers of the occupiers to evacuate to Russia.

‘240 houses were razed to the ground, and 700 were damaged’ — resident of the village of Zahaltsi

Oleksandr Voinalovych lives in the village of Zahaltsi, Kyiv Region. He is a former employee of the State Emergency Service. When a full-scale war began, and there were already many occupiers around the village, Oleksandr evacuated women and children by school bus.

‘I told the Russians at the checkpoints that I was going to Azovstal’

The superstar volunteer from Mariupol says he fought his way into the besieged city several times while the Russian army continually bombed it.

‘We prayed aloud all the way,’ says deacon Mykola Serdiuk, describing how his family left their occupied village.

At the beginning of the war, Mykola Serdiuk was with his family in the occupied vil-lage of Havrylivka near Hostomel (Kyiv Region). To leave, they had to sneak through Russian checkpoints at their own risk. They saw columns of Russian tanks, smashed cars in ditches, but with God's help and prayer they made it to safety.

‘One brother perished, the second was barely saved’ — the story of a resident of Zahaltsi

Svitlana Zamitailo lives in the village of Zahaltsi, Kyiv Region. The woman's family lost everything they had: their house and possessions. But the worst thing is that the war took the life of her brother, who was transporting people and humanitarian aid.

‘The Russians killed people with bestial cruelty’

Red Cross volunteer Mykhailo Tulskyi was under occupation in Borodianka and saw with his own eyes the terrible crimes committed by the Russian military against civilians and military personnel. The man is now being treated for PTSD.

‘It was impossible to endure here,’ — a resident of Borodianka

Hanna Shmorhun is a resident of the notorious house at 353 Central Street in Borodianka. She hid in a private home with her neighbors, but it was not safe there either. The Russians bombarded houses with tanks, shot people in the streets, and buried the dead in a ditch.

‘When I was evacuated, I only had a pair of trousers, shoes, a jacket and my documents’

Petro Neshchadym is a pensioner from Moshchun (a village in Kyiv Region). His house was destroyed. Petro hopes that the war will end and he will be healthy enough to build a new house.

What does a military chaplain do, and who needs him?

And what do chebureks [deep-fried turnovers with a filling of ground or minced meat and onions] have to do with it? Lieutenant Colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleh Sydorenko recalls the story from the service.

‘Almost my entire family perished’

A resident of Borodianka, Tetiana Bukina, and her relatives were hiding in the basement from Russian bombings. On 1 March, the Russians dropped several air bombs on their house. Unfortunately, the panel ceilings could not hold up and buried the family.

‘The neighbor was still alive and called his granddaughter to get him out from under the rubble,’ — a resident of Borodianka

During the bombing of Borodianka, Mykhailo Kokidko and his son received shell shock. The family barely had time to escape the destroyed burning house. After the evacuation, the man ended up under occupation in the neighboring village of Zahaltsi.

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