Reporter: We are in Bezimienni, behind me is the center for temporary accommodation where today they brought people from the areas adjacent to the Azovstal. People got out along the humanitary corridor, all without exceptions thanking the Army of the Popular Republic of Donetsk and also the Army of the Russian Federation for the help and with horror remembering the days when the Ukrainian Army got into their homes.
Sergey: The Azov Battalion was cruel, I wanted to go and get some water together with my sister. So I walked into the house to fetch a rope. Just a rope, about 18-20 meter long, in order to cut it. I did not open the fridge or any cupboards, just wanted to fetch the rope. They began threatening me of execution.
My sister and her husband were walking in Perestri, they went home, meaning her husband’s house, to take some food in order to eat. Not only they took away their food and stuff, they hit her husband in the ribs with their army boots.
Anatoly: The kitchen was broken, the gas cylinder was broken, the water supply network blasted, no food, what to do? Starve to death? In short, we decided to leave. And so the bullets are flying by, the shells are exploding and we with flags carefully reached here.
Reporter: So you heard the info on the radio and …
Anatoly: On the radio. Yes. Thanks God, at least something, the first radio appeared. We listened to you for a long time, there was also music, so that we could relax somehow, we danced with the kids. The cellar was two by two meters. Stayng ther for 55 days was horrible.
Nadezhda: We were there like flies, because the houses were collapsing and burning. We had already changed several shelters. A bomb burnt our house one of the first days. You see?! We had no idea where to run and what to do. In the second shelter the same thing. A fire. We could hardly get out.
Olga: Grandfather cannot walk at all. One woman without a leg. And all the others are not self-sufficient as well. From the man side there is only one, seventeen year old. And that’s all. Children saved us, they brought us water. The Russian Army. They got us out of there, they helped us. They carried my mother in her wheelchair. I really, really want to say thank You!
But really we were so scared. Ours fucking Ukrainians scared us telling that the enemy would come and execute us. We were there and I said that it couldn’t be that our brotherly Slavs would execute us. There were also the Chechens who helped some others out, they gave everyone water and calmed them down. Thank You so much. I bow in respect. It is true: I knew that the Russians wouldn’t let us down. I lived for 2 years in Murmansk after those first bombings.
