Illustrated by Anna Osadchuk
22-year-old Diana hails from Volnovakha. That very same town where “people are being buried alive, so to say.” She moved from the Donetsk region to Kharkiv several years ago. It’s been four days now that the situation in Kharkiv is as critical as in her hometown: Diana and her boyfriend are staying in their apartment at the city suburbs. Most of the time they remain in the bathroom, hiding from shelling.
“We have no plans to leave,” she says. “I will stay in Kharkiv to the bitter end; as long as my house stands, as long as I have a place to live. I can’t understand how come it hasn’t been hit yet: it’s a tall, 16-storeyed building.”
For the past several days, Kharkiv has been one of the hottest spots of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The aggressor is shelling residential areas; in the morning of March 1, it hit the building of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration at Svobody Square, the largest square in the city, with two missiles. According to the State Emergency Service, at least ten persons were killed, more than 20 injured in the shelling.
Diana was shocked when she learned about the shelling. Svobody Square is the symbol of the city, located in its downtown. Still, she felt no disappointment or emptiness caused by the “brothers”’ betrayal for she had had no illusions about Russia. “My opinion [about Russia – ed.] has just been confirmed. I only feel hatred towards the people who do this,” she says.
The life of Diana and her boyfriend, just like that of many other people in Ukraine, is currently limited to a short list of activities: waking up (if at all slept), calling their parents and friends, having some food, and then just checking the news and living to see the next day. The couple has food for ten more days, as well as drinking water; after that they will only have tap water.
In Diana’s hometown of Volnovakha, the situation deteriorates daily; the town is on the brink of the humanitarian catastrophe. Diana’s family wonderfully managed to leave the town to a neighboring district.
“No ambulance. No electricity, water, or heating. They keep saying that local administration is working, but there’s no more local administration. It’s not working at all! People just stay at homes. Only people with cars were able to leave (cries). My girlfriend had no car; her uncle who stayed in the basement with her went out to find a bus to get people out and came under shelling. I don’t know if he’s alive…”
Still, Diana remains optimistic and has plans for life after the victory. “We decided to make tattoos, with this well-known phrase about the Russian ship” [‘Russian ship, go and fuck yourself.’ – ed.]
Diana believes in Ukraine’s victory wholeheartedly. “Ukraine has never been this united as it’s today. I believe everything will be fine. We will stand, our life will get back to normal. As if the war never happened…”
