The plans were ordinary: life, work, vacation in the summer. But it all changed very, very rapidly. In March 2014, when it all started in Donbas, what we saw on TV was one thing. You see horror, terror, but you don't feel it. A little understanding is completely different when it is not shown from TV. Later, we also talked with the employees of the village council, thought that what was there from Donbas, from Luhansk, people were moving and looking for a better fate here. Why don't you protect your land?

And so they felt all this themselves, our residents gathered and left, saving the lives of their relatives. So until you feel it on yourself, you will not understand what war is, what it is to lose a house, loved ones.

 At four in the morning, in the group of heads of communities of the region, the governor wrote that there was an invasion, and the war began.

For some reason, I had such an understanding in my mind that it would be a little easier to survive in a village during such a difficult situation. He took the whole family, wife, two children, and we went to Kyiv to visit our parents. Honestly, there was nothing of the stockpiles, because there was an opinion that there would be no war. They scare, they scare, they stand at the border, as often it was, and nothing will happen.

 From me, the position of head of the community obliges me to take certain actions. We gathered the entire team. Our task is to mobilize the population. I saw the difference between the military, which was already in the army, and the recruits. They were ready, dressed, but the young guys who were just being taken away were not very dressed or equipped.

That's why I gave everything from things, I say: "Take what you need", I understood that it would be cold. Then in the morning, when I woke up, I see that there is 4 degrees of frost. Hot food was prepared, teas were taken out in the morning. Food products were constantly delivered later, because even then there was no normal logistics. All the same, boys should be fed, because no one will be hungry for a long time.

 In that period, in principle, he was almost not at home. Constantly on the move, constantly in work matters. For example, on February 24, 25, 26, 27, opinions were still so slightly encouraging. When you watched the video on Facebook, when the [Russian] troops leave, people come out, block the road, they turn around and go around populated areas. On February 28, it was lunch somewhere, the military came to us and started placing the boys on the streets. Just heard a strong hum ‒ ran, guys behind me. We ran into the basement, just jumped in there, explosions immediately began. We waited out this wave, the commander says: "Guys, where is our colleague?»

We ran out, and he was already lying wounded between the cars, because for some reason he stayed there. The boys began to provide first aid, someone was driving a car. Here the second hum went ‒ we blew up again, ran into the basement. That wounded policeman was the last, but he also managed to jump in, the second wave went here.

There were such feelings that now the house would simply collapse and fall, and we would lie there too. After the second wave, the police began to pull up and report to the commander that three policemen had died. After that, the phone calls started, there was a gas leak, there the body was lying, there help should be provided, so I went to help people.

 He agreed with Ukrposhta, took soldiers, went to Chernihiv for funds to pay pensions. War, weapons are everywhere, you carry one and a half million hryvnias in the car and you don't know, you will deliver ‒ you won't deliver. But they were still taken and given a pension to pensioners, because there was nothing to live for.

We didn't go to the city every day. The volunteer centres worked closely with the regional administration. There were also certain locations where food and medicines were issued. That's why they went and took food there. The fact that we took potatoes and millet from our farmers, took them to Chernihiv, shared them and gave them there, and they gave us pasta, peas, and something else.

‒ Where are you going?, ‒ asked at the checkpoint. 

‒ Well, if you make it, go like that.

‒ In the sense of "you'll make it"?, ‒ I say.

‒ They recharge just in time, if you have time, try it.

Through the blocks on the broken road 100-110 km/h, I'm just flying to the KSK bridge, they immediately start shooting the area. And just at such a moment you go and think later, do you need those foods now? You can also just lie here somewhere. The family will be left without a father.

 My parents' house is a little further away, but the fence is still broken, the windows, the front door, the roof. The beams were so uprooted that when he climbed in with his father to repair, so in shock, the blast wave was so powerful. Parents said they would not go anywhere. And he decided that the family should be taken out. I would have it easier that way.

He arranged shelter. Boards were placed on the potatoes, and old blankets, clothes, and kufayks were already on the boards. They lay on it. Somehow I didn't want to be in the basement, I watched where, what, where it flew. I already jumped into the basement at the last moment, when you feel that it is nearby somewhere.

The fact that someone went somewhere is such a situation. Let's say I understand everyone that people saved themselves, saved families, that's why they left. There are no complaints. The majority, in principle, did so. Thank God that some part of the normal adequate population remained, who simply stayed and worked together, helped both civilians and soldiers.

link to history