People made your home into a literal barn

КА: Hello, Victoria, good day.

В: Good day, evening.

КА: Thank you so much for agreeing to talk with me. I want to clarify for starters: maybe you have some questions that you'd like to clarify about what, who, where?

В: So, I'm curious where this interview will go, in what form? Will you be recording on a voice recorder?

КА: Yes.

В: It will be audio, yes?

КА: Yes-yes-yes, I'll record everything on a voice recorder and then this all gets transformed into a monologue from your perspective. If you need it and it's important, I'll show it to you before publication.

В: Ask questions, what specifically interests you. I can start myself, in principle. I'm from Kherson region, Beryslav district, Kreshchenivka village. When the war started, my mother is a first-group disabled person - I understood that I had to leave with her to relatives in Lviv. Russian troops were already 30 kilometers from our village. I was getting ready to leave, but we once went out to catch a train to Kryvyi Rih - the trains were so packed that the train wouldn't even stop. And I'm with mama, with a wheelchair. And we came back. I'm driving back in such despair - I understand that this is such hopelessness, that we need to leave from here. Intuition told me that they would definitely reach our village.

КА: And when was this?

В: We came back March 4th, somewhere like that. We tried to leave for the first time on the 29th, and then on March 3rd we managed to leave. We have a big house, combine harvester, tractor - we worked the land. And my younger brother, he's 21 years old, he says: "Well, I'll stay, they won't come to us, they won't reach us." We live in Kreshchenivka village, it's a bit in the steppes for us. He says: "Well, who needs us, they won't come here." And he stayed, because there he looks after the farm, looks after the house. You saw in the video that our house isn't small. Previously there was furniture, and good repairs, and a lot of different household appliances. Somehow, parents worked their whole lives for all this, earned it. To just abandon everything like that and leave, he didn't want to. Papa died a year and a half ago, mama is disabled, in short, we decided that I go and Vovchik stays. We insisted that he go, but he didn't agree. He stayed home, we left with mama, everything was already normal, we arrived at relatives, everything was good. They began, Russian ones approached closer and closer, started shelling, the electricity went out. They first stood outside the village. They were such, like, polite. Our village head - that's my brother-in-law. They contacted him, like, we won't go into the village, you just don't touch us, we won't touch you, that's what they said. I didn't believe all this well. I think they were pretending to be such really very good ones, rescuers. March 10th there was no electricity, Vovchik brought a generator, we had a freezer full of meat, and a freezer, refrigerator. He constantly ran with that generator, took it, froze things, again meat that was thawing - there was a lot of meat there. We, when we left, before the war, roughly speaking, slaughtered all our pigs. I packaged everything nicely there into freezers. He got fed up with that meat. He says, thanks to you for commanding to slaughter the pigs. On the 10th, neighbors on our street were already calling me, acquaintances, they say: "That's it, they kicked us out of our homes, Russians came in, brazenly entered, came into the whole village." People as they were in galoshes, in bathrobes, that's how they were forced to leave. At aunt Vera's, the paramedic, that's our friend, family friend, they came in: "So, show us your attic!" They climbed up, looked, yes, here, here, here: "That's it, it suits us, move out." However people were, whatever they managed to take, that's how they left. They call me: "We don't see your Vova somehow." I start worrying, I call - he rejects, I call - he rejects. They already told me specifically that Russians are in your house, that they've already driven a BTR into the yard, drove their field kitchen. We have a house, a big yard, wide, that is, big equipment easily drives into the yard. "They're there at your place, apparently cooking food, and they're not letting Vovka out." I call, I played dumb, like I don't know they're there. Finally, Vovchik picks up the phone, I specifically decided to check whether I'm on speakerphone or not, to understand. Something along the lines of whether he himself can pick up the phone and they allow him to talk, or they put him on speakerphone. I say: "Damn, Vovchik, are you talking through your Bluetooth again? - on purpose - you're so poorly audible!" He says: "No, Vika, I'm on speakerphone because I lost my Bluetooth." In short, he understood me, and I understood him. I later, later already, when he returned from captivity, they held him in captivity from the first day, as soon as they were just getting ready to enter the house. They immediately, about 20 men, immediately entered the house with weapons, immediately took his phone from him. He was sitting there, the kid, well like a kid, he's 21 years old, he was sitting there in headphones, watching something on his phone, drinking tea. And here they burst in, knock down the doors, immediately weapons to the head and give up your phone. Immediately such questions: "Who are you, what unit are you from, where do you serve?" He says: "I don't serve anywhere." So you understand, he didn't serve in the army. He says, I live here. Can I swear?

КА: Of course

В: I'll quote what they said. They say: "Don't lie. You're a Banderite-nationalist. We'll check your phone now." He says: "I live here, find my passport." They're holding him at gunpoint. They search for the passport, find the passport. At this moment, as soon as they burst in, they started just turning the whole house upside down. They got out the freezer, take out that meat, some are already frying, carrying that meat, in short. Started like at home, just turning the house upside down. And found like not military uniform, but just a pixelated jacket that I fed pigs in. Former boyfriend, he was like military, and he gave me his jacket, gave it to my papa. It's warm, just for farm work, it's normal, and he didn't need it anymore. They found this jacket, started beating him. Like: "Where is this from?" He says: "This lies at home, you see that it's...". There on the jacket mama sewed on sleeves, not sleeves, sewed on such cuffs, it's visible that this is a work, home jacket, just pixelated. Ah, they found his passport and see that Kreshchenivka village, registration, Chkalov house, 11. "Good, who do you live with?" He says: "With mama and sister." And their first question, not where they just are, but "Come on, go show where you buried them." He says: "In what sense, why would I bury them?" - "And you killed them under the noise in order to take possession of property." When I heard this, I was shocked. He says: "Are you serious?" For them we lived very well, apparently. They came in, looked that there are repairs, combine harvester, tractor, car, toilet in the house. They thought that the young one decided under the noise to take us out with mama, to "take possession of property." This is, of course, funny - well, how? Funny, because it's not happening now, it already seems funny with time. They started turning the whole house upside down further. They left one of their young guys, military, Danil, 19 years old. Vovchik talked with him. They assigned him to him, made him chop wood. Vova chopped wood for them in our house. On the territory of his own house he chopped wood for Russians, because they made him under gunpoint, made him do everything. He chopped wood and started talking a little with that military guy, he says: "Vika, the person is adequate, normal guy, young, you can talk with him about technology." And my Vova is interested in technology, cars, all this, military technology. He knows a lot about all this. He had to talk with him. As soon as the topic goes to something political, military, that's it, he says, they have this veil: "Banderites, Nazis." Such propaganda pours from the person that it's just kapets [editor's note: slang for "terrible/awful"]: how much they zombified them, he says. You look, the person is adequate, you talk with him normally, but actually it's just terrible. Evening comes, in our room where the TV is, they sat down to cook food. Just the commander wasn't there, but there were just soldiers like that, sitting near Vova, controlling him. And Vova, he's such a guy, communicative, cheerful, positive. He said something to them, talked, they started joking with him there, started laughing, they say: "We'll make you the head in the village." In short, started driving such jokes. And here the commander comes into the room, and starts yelling at his soldiers: "What the hell are you all sitting here, doing nothing?" And takes from a distance shoots Vova in the leg. He has two gunshots. This was the first gunshot. Shoots him in the leg, like just vented anger, purely good evening. Then he tells him, I don't know how to say this word in Russian, but don't take offense, or don't be offended, something like that.

КА: Don't take offense

В: Yes, yes, that I got heated. I was shocked when the young one told me. This was the first shot, he says: "I'm bleeding, they're sitting, eating near me." They later called a medic, injected him with a drug, one that relieves pain strongly. They looked at his phone thoroughly. His phone, like every Ukrainian who is a patriot of his country, has all kinds of screenshots about Russian military, about Putin. They, in short, decided that he's a nationalist. He says: "They injected me with that injection, I didn't understand what was happening." And here again this commander bursts in and starts asking him: "What are you telling, what else do you want to tell me?" Started beating with the rifle butt on the head. He had already, apparently, beaten him before, just the young one doesn't tell everything much, he doesn't really want to remember all this. Started beating him with the rifle butt on the head, started asking. This is the first evening in the village, they found Molotov cocktails in the basement at school. Started asking him: "Where are these cocktails from, where did they come from?" And he says, I don't understand, everything is floating before my eyes, I don't understand what he wants. Then, he says, I already understood what was happening. He started saying about the phone: "You're a spotter," - started saying to the young one. "When I already understood - he says - he takes a pistol, reloads and to the head. Here I hear a click. Just a click." Vovchik explained that the cartridge didn't go into the chamber. This happens, occurs in weapons from time to time. Then he says: "Nothing, you'll live today." Already the second shot point-blank in the leg, specifically in the same leg, nearby, next to that wound, he shoots him. And this second shot was already directly into the bone. I called, wrote many messages. I didn't know all this, but I was uneasy. I wrote specially, I don't know anything, I say: "Vova, if you don't pick up the phone one more time, I'll really kill you! Maybe I'm worrying. Did you feed the dogs, did you eat something yourself?" I specially continue writing like this. I think, if I let them understand that I already know they're there, who knows what they'll start doing. The second day, still before the shot, at 9 in the evening, they still let him talk. Well, and said, everything's normal, tiri-piri [editor's note: Russian slang meaning "everything's fine"].

КА: With you?

В: Yes. They had already shot him, on the second day they still held him in our house, gave him crutches to transport him. Eyes tied, transporting to their headquarters, headquarters in a neighboring village. He himself understood with closed eyes, which way the car turns, where it's going, he understood which village they're taking him to. Well, not the point. How much they mocked him, that he has two gunshots in his leg! He says: "Vika, this is hellish pain, such pain that can't be expressed in words." They also added crutches to him, we had crutches at home, because mama is disabled, walks on crutches, she had crutches. His eyes are tied, they also tell him, "Go, go faster, I said go faster!" He says that you start running on these crutches, hellish pain, eyes tied, you don't see where you're running. Well, how running, that's loudly said running. And someone just trips him, he falls - how much they mocked. Then they transported him to that village, Lyubymivka village it's called. They held him there somewhere in a barn, and held him as the most malicious criminal - they said he was a spotter. They put him in the most barn-like barn, there were like several barns, one after another, nearby. About this moment I learned literally last weekend, because I'm telling you, he doesn't tell everything. They held him as the most malicious criminal, he was in that barn, only a bale of straw. All the rest of their prisoners, also from different villages, guys they detained, they brought them there to this barn, to the toilet. So they defecated there, urinated.

КА: In the barn where they held him?

В: Yes, where he sat. He says, one guy there was nauseous, something was wrong with his stomach. He vomited, they brought him there to vomit right there. Specifically to that little barn where the young one sat. This was March, cold on the street, there was still frost. He says, mice are running around. They even brought him a severed Russian hand. They put it on his shoulder like that and said: "This is your work, faggot." That, like, he's a spotter. I say: "Then they took the hand away?" - "No, it slipped off my shoulder and lay near me for about a day." Then they gave him a grenade to hold. They pulled the pin, and gave him the grenade, held it the whole night, that is, you fall asleep and that's it, you explode. Many such moments. He's not the only one they held like that, mocked. My brother-in-law, our village head. They also took him, they held him in captivity like under house arrest.

КА: In his house?

В: In his house, yes. They also beat him, beat him very hard, like Vovchik, mocked him. Vitok told in an interview that they tell him: "Do you know what the thinnest skin on a person is, where it's located?" There near the heel, where the bone is, you know? Just it was winter, then they heated the stove. Someone heats up a poker, applied it to him, Vitya showed the scar, applied it to the heel. They also took two more guys, because they thought that they... Shells flew at them, and they wanted to find those who transmit data to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They caught everyone in a row stupidly, mocked everyone in a row. In short, then they took the young one to Kakhovka, there, where their most main ones are. I wrote very many messages to Vovchik, on the third day I already started writing specifically to them, like addressed to them.

КА: But to his phone?

В: Yes. They immediately took it, when I called, there were beeps, I understood that the phone was with them. Ah, by the way, somewhere maybe two weeks ago, his phone appeared in Ossetia somewhere. He had an iPhone, and the phone turned on, we looked, tracked where it was there. Then contacted the owner of the phone, some random guy just sold him that phone. He says: "I somehow thought that this phone, - this was a Georgian guy that Vovchik communicated with, - of some killed Ukrainian military, because there was a Ukrainian keyboard on the phone. I didn't think it was stolen, I didn't think it came this way." You know how Georgians are hot. He says: "I fucked their mother, if I had known where this phone came from!" Vovchik told the Georgian how it was, what it was, that they took this phone from him, not the point. They took his phone, I wrote there to them all the time.

КА: And what did you write?

В: I wrote very many messages of such character, that "You are wrong about him. He's just a foolish young guy who is interested in technology." They found such photos in his phone - some shells fell, he photographed, sent to me. Well, why do you photograph this? And they thought by all this that he's a spotter. I write to them: "You are wrong about him. He's just a foolish young guy who has been interested in technology since childhood, who is interested in all kinds of tanks." I wrote very-very-very many messages to them, I wrote that we have a disabled mother, that papa died a year and a half ago, that he's the only breadwinner in the family, that not just breadwinner, that the only man in the family remained. I wrote to them, to appeal to pity or something, I don't know, I was ready for anything then. And I wrote to them: "I'm sure that you have a kind heart, that you will still figure out this situation correctly, that you won't cause grief for our family." Very many messages of such character there were.

КА: And did they answer?

В: At least to hear his voice. I fall asleep and I dream that they answer my messages. I wake up, look at the phone, and there's zero. And like this every night, these days lasted very long, it seemed like eternity to me. And still they answered me.

КА: When? After how much?

В: I don't know, now I'll maybe even look, one second. First message that they answered. They said that "investigation is ongoing." Many messages, and they answered... On the 18th of March they entered the village. I wrote every day, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, finally on the 23rd they answered: "Investigation is ongoing. Based on its results we will make a decision. For now he is detained." I write: "Thank you for answering. Maybe you can top up Vovchik's phone number so you can answer me? Please, promise me that you'll let me hear his voice. We are beside ourselves here." Again many, many messages I wrote to them, and then he writes to me: "You are in Lviv" - "This is a question? If yes, then I'll answer. Yes, we were forced to leave because explosions were already audible. I was very afraid to stay home, afraid for mama, for Vova, but he refused to go, like: who will look after the house, feed the dogs? And evacuation trains were only to Lviv." I know that for them Lviv is like a red flag. I specially write, I thought through every word I wrote. "Evacuation trains were only to Lviv. But we're not in Lviv itself, but closer toward Belarus." That's how I wrote. I write: "I'll transfer money to your account so you can answer my messages. I understand that you don't have time for correspondence now, but please tell me, is he really in the hospital?" Because they lied to people who came to our village home to ask: "Can we find out where Vova is? Because they worry about him." They said: "He's in the hospital." I asked: "Is it true that he's in the hospital?" He writes: "Under doctor's supervision." And the next question: "What is people's attitude toward the ongoing events, if we remove the influence of nationalists?" I write: "You mean - here?" Start asking stupid questions. "You mean - here, where we are now located?" He writes: "Yes." And I don't answer anything, because I thought for a long time how to formulate correctly and how to answer correctly. To write that there are no nationalists here - he'll think I'm a nationalist myself. I had to think everything through very strongly. In the evening I get an MMS, voice message. I sent videos and photos of the young one there. Videos where he had such a pistol that didn't shoot, nothing. I'm telling you, he loved weapons all his life, technology, suffered from such nonsense like a small child. And we had such a joke that on New Year he helped me in the kitchen, he put on glasses, like a gangster and a pistol nearby. And like helped me - crushed crab sticks. We fooled around with him. And I have such videos, I filmed him. I sent this video so they could see that he's just fooling around, just like a small child, for him these are all jokes. They found that pistol that doesn't work, somehow it's called, sealed, something like that. I write: "This is that pistol that you found. We just always fool around with him." The joke is that there's a video where he quotes some quote, funny, in Russian. Here it's clear that he's not a fierce opponent of the Russian language. I thought all this up, specially sent these videos. And he's crushing-crushing there, takes the pistol and says: "Remember, brother, one thing. Don't remember a second." They send me a voice message where you can hear him say: "Speaking?" - the young one says. That one: "Yes, speak." That is, his eyes were tied, he didn't see whether they turned on or didn't turn on the recorder already. Well, audio, and this is a recording. There the voice is like of another person, how audible by voice that he's just broken. And he said: "Vika, everything's good with me, I'm under doctor's supervision, don't worry." Said something else there and is silent. And Vova says: "That's it?" And he says: "Say something else, maybe. Do you want to say something else?" And the young one says: "I love you" - even stutters. "I hope that soon all this will end, we'll be together. I pray constantly." He says that he prayed 24/7. I think that my messages, these videos, gave a lot. Because, possibly, they really somehow reconsidered all this differently. They sent him to Kakhovka, for "further investigation." There, in Kakhovka, I understand, their most main ones sit. My mama is a very believing person, we prayed day and night. Mama fasted. We have such a believing family. I think that God heard the prayers, and there was one such Russian who... Ah, Vovchik, when he was leaving the house, some young guys there, who talked with him, befriended him, how to tell you, I don't know, who treated him normally. Some turned the house upside down, and others found and brought a little album, ordinary, for photographs, there of Vovchik, mine, Nadichka's - we have a big family, there are 5 children in the family. Brought him a bag, put it, says: "Here, let you have it." So you understand, I lost my driver's license, well not lost, hid it, somewhere 2 years ago. And I couldn't find it. Plastic card, license. They found it! I couldn't find it, and they found it. Also a Russian, he brought him that license, says: "Here, God grant, you'll give it to your sister." Of all of them, generally, adequate were maybe 4 percent, maybe 2. We had a lot of them in our house. He says, maybe there were 2 normal guys, and there were about 50 people of them in our house. We have a big house, you saw the video. They hammered nails for themselves in every room, hung things, I don't know what. In short, and that Russian, during interrogation, started asking him. He explained everything to him.

КА: Already in Kakhovka?

В: Yes, already in Kakhovka. He explained everything to him. He said to take him for an X-ray, the young one. There our Ukrainian doctor, who is already under Russians, tells the young one quietly: "Do you want, I'll put you here, you'll lie as long as needed, until the war ends, until your leg heals." And Vova says: "No, I'll probably go back, to these interrogations." And this conversation was overheard by a Russian who drove Vova to the hospital, who controlled, convoy or how. And when Vova was brought for interrogation, then he says: "And this guy is good. I heard that they offered him hospitalization, but he refused." Like they noted this act of his. This Russian who conducted the interrogation, he looked at the photo album, he knew everything about me, about Vova, about our family by that moment. That I studied in Zaporizhzhia, that Vovchik studied in Lviv, that papa is gone. Everything, everything, everything they found out. And he says: "I don't see the point in detaining you." Because there really isn't any, there was nothing to hold him for. This doesn't say that they're good, that he's good, this Russian. This says that they're finished, because they took and maimed a child, maimed a person, and then such cool ones: oh, really, there's nothing to hold you for. That's the joke. And they released him, we had an aunt in Kakhovka, they brought him to a designated place, we agreed where, our acquaintances came there and took Vovchik. After this he couldn't sleep, nothing, aunt Toma injected him with diphenhydramine constantly, injected all kinds of sleeping pills so he would sleep. His psyche was so shattered, he was always with tied eyes. And in the morning he calls me from aunt's number, says: "What are you doing?" I say: "I'm sleeping" - "Yes, and I'm watching the sun rise. It's so cool to watch the sun rise." He was always with tied eyes. And aunt Toma says: "I somehow come into the room, and he jerks every time." It remained in the subconscious that every time when they came in, they beat him. Vova says: "You sit there in the barn, you hear, you think, well that's it, either they'll kill me or they'll beat me. When they already beat, it was already whatever, when they beat. I already didn't feel this, it was already so much on adrenaline. He came, beats, beats, with the butt, hits, hits, hits, then got tired and left." Such beasts they are. Ah, they also dug a pit for him. They dug, led him to that pit, like, that's it, kapets for you. I didn't delve into this situation anymore, I know that such a thing was. Because he doesn't really tell anything properly. He doesn't really want to remember all this. This is everything he told. He's with us, everything's good already, his leg healed. You can see a video, there below, where he arrived, how we met him.

КА: To you in Lviv?

В: Yes, yes, yes. On the Instagram page you can find this video.

КА: Can we linger here a little bit on one moment? You said that you agreed with the aunt that she would pick him up. At what moment did you find out that they're releasing him from captivity?

В: This was somewhere after twelve or ten days after they took him captive. He called mama's phone, this was on Sunday, from some Ukrainian number, that is, gave him the number that Russian, called on speakerphone: "Mama, everything's fine with me, they're releasing me." God, that was the best day of our life, we all cried so much that it's just impossible to express in words. What you saw in the house, that's nothing for us at all, honestly, sorry for such a word, that's nothing for us at all. We had a situation with the Russian world much worse.