We heard distant explosions
Civil servant
"The war came to Lysychansk in 2014. In the spring, we heard distant explosions, gunshots... Since we lived on the fourth floor, we also saw flashes in the distance... It was somewhere in Luhansk, quite far away. It wouldn't reach us... But it did..." - he begins his story with these words for "History of the Strong" civil servant Tetyana Hrytsai. The woman is from Lysychansk, a city twice occupied by the Russians.
I don't know if I would have survived
She moved to her parents, who lived in the private sector. When she returned home after the deoccupation of the city, everything in their apartment was cut by shrapnel. "If I had stayed, I don't know if I would have survived under their merciless barrage..."
After the occupation of 2014, Lysychansk was half empty, large enterprises gradually declined. The echoes of military actions that took place nearby could be heard.
To be honest, I didn't believe it
"And at the end of 2021, they suddenly talked about a full-scale war, reported about the accumulation of Russian troops near the Ukrainian borders. To be honest, I didn't believe that such a thing was possible. I didn't want to believe it!" - says Tatyana.
On February 24, 2022, the woman was to close her sick leave. "But in the morning I received a message not to go anywhere and to stay at home, because... the war..."