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Attention! Translation was done using AI, mistakes are possible
When the Russians came in, early March. When I saw them, I even felt sorry for them, I suppose — guys who’d ended up there, unclear what they’d been told. You could see it in their eyes. They went into every house, probably to check who was living there and who wasn’t. They were Buryats, and their age was around 23 and up. They communicated calmly.
They checked what was in the house and advised us to write in big letters on the door that there were children, because we had an infant. They said, hang some white ribbons so that when they come, they’d understand that children and ordinary people live here. I said: “Who are 'they'?” They look at me: “You don’t understand who 'they' are?” And the girl who was with us gives me a look and says: “Quiet, so you don’t say too much.” Okay then. Ordinary people, the attitude was like — well, this will probably all be over soon. Then it changed abruptly.
The most horrifying thing was when everything was essentially crossed out — I think it was the 5th. They set up positions at most a kilometer away. They were already firing into Irpin. And our forces were in Irpin. Everything was already flying over the house; we were actually sitting in the basement. Our yard was littered with shrapnel. Until that point, I hadn’t shed a single tear — somehow I held everything inside.
At some point, we hear a car approaching. And we hear automatic gunfire. And then a woman’s moans begin. My husband cracked the basement door open and says a car has been shot up, a woman is lying there, someone else too, and she’s moaning. And you sit there and listen to it. His wife says: “Let’s go out and help.” But how? Because they’re standing right there nearby, shooting at everything moving. I understood that this woman had a very agonizing death. She was dying for about 40 minutes. When things quieted down, I broke down sobbing, because I’d never heard a person die. You can’t do anything to help, because you understand you’ll be next.
Around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, when everything had died down, we came out of the basement. My husband went beyond the gate and looked — there were three people: a man behind the wheel, a man next to him… he died instantly, a bullet straight to the forehead. The man who’d been driving managed to run out of the car, but they shot him in the back. The woman was sitting in the back seat. Their car was full of dog food — they’d been driving to their parents, to our neighbors, to the next house from ours. He just didn’t make it 10 meters. My husband went to look, and that boy’s parents came out and saw everything, and then we heard new screams. But these weren’t the screams of someone dying — these were the screams of a mother who’d seen her son.
I have relatives in Russia who are essentially afraid to call. They think they’re being wiretapped, surveilled, and all that. I’ve simply disowned those relatives for now, because I see all of this, polished up by Channel One. Some are in Crimea, others in Rostov. Crimea hasn’t called or texted once. Not once! My cousin lives in Rostov. She’s taken a neutral stance. A neutral stance right now… that’s also a betrayal. So thank you very much for apologizing, because that is probably the most important thing between Ukraine and Russia.
I genuinely feel sorry for your people. Because in this situation, however painful it is to watch all this, I know that we’re going to be incredibly strong. We’ll only become stronger, more powerful, happier from this. But I feel sorry for you… scattered into hiding, afraid. And just, well, you deserve it. Because when you have courage, it can lead to something good. We’ll rebuild, and then we’ll invite you over for a tour.
