To survive death
This story won`t have photos, except two of them – a portrait of a person who has experienced the horror, and the photo of this horror.
This story doesn’t have an end, except the hope – that someday a normal life will return.
This story was experienced one year ago, but it will always live in the soul, in the heart, and in the mind.
February 24, 2022
07 am
Militaries entered the house in Mariupol, where Mrs. Natalia lived with her husband. All the habitats of the quarter were asked to leave their apartments in 30 minutes. Mrs. Natalia and her husband went to the city center, where their son and daughter lived with their families. There they revealed that the war began.
February 27, 2022
The electricity in Mariupol was turned off. Then gas, water, and heating. The cellular and internet connection were also turned off. When the city government left Mariupol – looting began.
Mrs. Natalia and her family (and all citizens of Mariupol) were collecting water from puddles, river, rain tubes. They stayed in queues for water under shelling. "What a happiness it was when it started to snow. We could heat it and get some water" - Mrs. Natalia says.
At one moment, there were no live trees in the city because people took them to get warm and to cook. Under shelling.
"There was no bread. I cut pieces of 4 mm once per day and gave them to my grandchildren" - Mrs. Natalias tells the story with tears on her eyes. At some moment, people from the outskirts of Mariupol brought potatoes and carrots to the city center. And one shop started to distribute the rest of the meat because it was rotting. All these products were mixed in the cauldron, and the whole family ate it one time per day.
They slept in warm clothes under dozens of cover sheets.
March 1, 2022
Night time
Air bombings started. Every night, from 10 pm to 5 am, russians carried out an aerial bombardment of Mariupol. Also, there were attacks from the sea (south), east and north. We knew that nothing could help us to survive after a bomb fell on us. But my grandchild believed that in the corridor of the flat, we could have a chance to survive. So we went there every attack to calm him.
March 15, 2022
Morning time
"On 15 March, the Red Cross left our city. My daughter-in-law went to the river to take some water, and she heard from other people that today the green corridor would be open till 3 pm. She gave up everything and ran home. We packed some things and began our trip from Mariupol by two cars." That day, Mariupol was under heavy shelling, and 15 friends of Mrs. Natalia's family died.
March 15, 2022
6 pm
The family of Mrs. Natalia reached Nikolske. Because of the connection loss, they did not know that this territory was already considered to be DNR territory. “They let us stay in the hospital for a night. There were Kadyrov's people there. They all got high (marijuana). I was so afraid to fall asleep because I was scared they could do something bad with us”.
March 16, 2022
Early morning
Eleven cars were ready to go to the Ukrainian-controlled territory. All highways and roads were under shelling or destroyed. No connection. No GPS. No knowledge about that locality. “One man with his wife and their newborn knew the way. They had no windows in their car because of the shelling. Everybody took their warm clothe and gave them to that family with a newborn, and we left Nikolske”
“After that there was Berdyansk, undressing of men, eternal controlling on block posts, buriatians (edit. Buriatia – is an ethnic territory, it is a subject of the rusian federation), who didn’t speak rusian, they were not able to read in rusian. After Berdiansk, there was a mined abyss on the way to Zaporizhzhia. It was the only way to get o to the Ukrainian-controlled territory. When we reached this territory – people were welcoming us. They were shouting at us “Open the window!” and were giving us food and drinks. I’m so grateful to them for their kindness and generosity.
March 20, 2022
Two cars of Mrs. Natalia's family reached Uman. Now they live in the shelter, which is supported by Caritas-Spes Ukraine and Emergency Appeal project.
_____
To leave Mariupol, people had to have a car. Otherwise, they were trapped.
Nobody could capture the Mariupol tragedy because of the loss of electricity and the risks to life on block posts.
Firstly, rusians destroyed schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and maternity hospitals. After that, they started to destroy residential buildings.
On the 15th of March, 15 children and one educator in the orphanage near Mrs. Natalia's house stayed in Mariupol. Their fate is unknown.
A friend of Mrs. Natalia was killed in the queue by a rusian soldier. He just said to the soldier: “This is our land. We didn’t call you”.
