War. Stories from Ukraine

Ukrainians tell stories about their life during the war

“During that week, I forgot what peaceful life looks like,” Anna Chaplyhina, 37, Bucha—Khmelnytskyi

by | 13 March 2022 | War. Stories from Ukraine

 

“When the shelling started, the military urged us to run to shelters. But what kind of shelters were those? An underground passage under the tracks. It was too small to hide everyone. Someone was leaning against the station building, and my child and I were left standing in an open area. My son sat down and I covered him,” 37 year-old Anna Chaplyhina from Bucha recalls waiting for an evacuation train.

For a week already, Bucha has been living under shelling by Russian troops who have been disrupting the evacuation of civilians. On the platform of the railway station in neighboring Irpin, people stuck together to get on a train to Kyiv. All of them were women with children. No-one wanted to offer their seat: no one wanted to stay in that hell.

Anna and her 7 year-old son came to the station at 10 a.m. for the first evacuation train to Kyiv. But there were so many people there that they could only get into the second one. The shelling started in an hour and a half. Anna saw a big cloud of thick smoke and assumed that a military hospital near her house was hit. At that moment, the only thing she worried about was whether she and her son would be able to get to the train without being hit on the platform.

 

 

Anna never wanted to leave. She hid from shelling in a shelter or in her apartment hallway. From the very first day of war, her Bucha, the neighboring Irpin and Hostomel were shelled by the Russian military day and night. Anna’s house is near the Irpin-Bucha interchange. She couldn’t even think about going outside to buy food. Russian soldiers were everywhere, even in the forest. Anna left on the last evacuation train from Irpin. After that, the invaders destroyed the train and the tracks, and thousands of people were left without that path to salvation.

At the very beginning, Anna decided not to go abroad. Now, she and her son are getting used to the silence in Khmelnytskyi. There are also sirens there, but there are no explosions.

“It feels like you’ve come to another planet. During that week, I forgot what peaceful life looks like. So at first I couldn’t understand how people were just wandering in the streets. They go shopping! They just go and buy food whenever they want! I didn’t have all that from the very first day of war.”

Her 57 year-old mom, who has cancer, stayed in Bucha. She ultimately refused to go because of her cat. Anna has not been able to contact her mom for an entire week, but she really hopes that it’s because of a discharged phone battery and no electricity. There’s no gas or water in the city either.

From chatrooms of her neighbors, Anna learned that the Russian military had come to their apartment building, but no details. Her neighbors send photos of burned cars. In some apartments, a blast wave has shattered the windows.

Anna wants to return home at the first chance she gets to rebuild the city. She says that now she is unlikely to work as an etiquette expert she was before the war. She is ready to work anywhere for the benefit of the country and to get money to raise her son.

Anna’s biggest fear was that the Russian military would occupy the cities and seize power in Ukraine. But she quickly realized that the enemy is not so scary because Ukrainians are fighting back well. And the invaders will not be able to function because of guerilla resistance. Now Anna often prays for the victory of Ukraine and dreams about rebuilding her country.

 

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