Three Years of War: Ukrainian Heroes Share Their Survival Stories

Today marks three years since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the aggressor country. Death, destruction and pain were brought to our country by our barbaric neighbors. Today, against the backdrop of dry figures, Intent recalls how it all began in the words of the heroes of our materials and what Ukrainians are experiencing.

Oleksandr Bezverkhniy, a veteran waiting for prosthetics

Oleksandr and his daughter Nicole. Photo provided by the interviewee

He has undergone more than 100 surgeries and has two legs amputated. Doctors call the case of Oleksandr Bezverhnyi, a soldier from Kherson region, a "surgical victory". After all, with his injuries and complications after them, the chance of survival was no more than 5%.

The morning of February 24, 2022, found the Bezverhnykh family on different banks of the Kherson region: Yulia and her then 2-year-old daughter Nicole were at home in the village, and Oleksandr was at work in the city. In addition to running his own farm, the man also worked as an electric welder at the Kherson Shipyard. To get to his family, Oleksandr drove across the Antonivskyi Bridge, actually to meet columns of Russian army military equipment.

"I was lucky because I did not see any Russian soldiers on my way. Instead, there were many cars with people leaving. Actually, we had the same plan, but we didn't have time. I got home at 10 in the morning, and in a few hours the village was occupied," Oleksandr recalls.

A few weeks later, Yulia and Nicole managed to evacuate to Ternopil. Oleksandr's escape from the occupation was more difficult because he had experience in military service. In late spring 2022, the family was able to reunite.

The man says that upon arrival he immediately went to the local military enlistment office. At first, he renewed his military card, then was registered for some time. Oleksandr joined the Armed Forces in the summer of 2023, underwent basic military training and professional training as an infantry fighting vehicle driver. He explains his decision succinctly: "I was tired of waiting and doing nothing. I wanted to liberate my home."

On February 23, we celebrated my wife's birthday. We went to different establishments, we were buzzing until about one in the morning, then we went home. And at about five in the morning, my mother-in-law woke us up with a phone call. I heard through my dream that the airport was being bombed, there was a war.

I thought, what war, I'm drunk, I'm still sleeping. And at about 07:30, I pierced my eyes and said: "Did my mother-in-law call? Is there a war?". I call the office and ask if we are going to work. It turned out that we were. I went to work like everyone else. And then on February 29, I got a call from the military enlistment office. They said: "Oh, it's good that you picked up the phone. We need you. We are waiting for you until 13:00. Come over."

I went to the kitchen, poured coffee, lit a cigarette. I drank coffee and smoked for about four hours.

Image: Intent

Anzhela Slobodian is a Kherson journalist who survived Russian capture

Working on the movie "Soldier". Photo provided by the interviewee

Anzhela Slobodian created the documentary Invasion, a film about the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the occupation of Kherson region. The film tells the story of a family from the Kherson region who suffered a heavy loss at the beginning of the occupation. The footage that Angela shot while she was under occupation was used in the work.

Perhaps this is how my body tries to get rid of memories that are triggering for me and cause pain. In my opinion, the occupation is the most terrible thing, worse than the shelling. It feels like your life has been taken away from you. When you go outside and see the Z on your sleeve, people in balaclavas driving by, occupiers at checkpoints. When they ask: "How are you doing?", I'm ready to kill them. But you can only show them how much you hate them with your eyes because they can kidnap you, lock you in a basement, and you won't know if you will be able to see your loved one. Even now, when I come to Kherson, I realize that I will not be able to live there anymore.

In March, I came to the military registration and enlistment office myself, there were no more queues. I didn't do it in the first days, I had to collect my thoughts, decide what we would do with my family, but I realized that I would have to do it. Not that I had to, but that it was the right thing to do. Maybe I tried to delay this moment, but it was my decision. I didn't receive any summonses, no one caught me-no one caught anyone back then. And it was an absolutely balanced decision. Probably the most terrible day of that period of my life. To come, climb the stairs and submit my documents. I understood perfectly well what war was. At that time, there was a fierce horror in the Kyiv region and beyond. But I was absolutely sure that my decision was right.

They let me go. I went home and just waited for the call, which came on July 4. On the 5th, I was already on my way to school.

The injury occurred on September 30, 2022. I was evacuated to a stabilization center, where they operated on the remains of my leg, I still had a knee on one leg. They just surgically treated the wounds. And the same night I went to Kharkiv, where I was operated on again immediately upon arrival, and cleaned up. A few days later I was on my way to Kyiv, where I spent almost six months. I was given the remains of my knee, which was completely non-functional, and underwent six operations. For about a month, only the stitches were treated.

Here are the pictures: Intent

Angelina Vetrova - made a diary of the occupation while corresponding with her son

Angelina Vetrova with her book. Photo provided by the interviewee

Angelina Vetrova says that she became a writer quite unexpectedly. Although she had experience in creating informational notes and artistic sketches for social media. The woman worked as a librarian for many years. She resigned from this position just five days before the start of the full-scale invasion. She had many plans ahead, but everything changed on February 24, 2022.

"The day before, we heard from everywhere: "pack emergency suitcases", "prepare food, water, medicine", "have savings". However, I did not believe that this could happen and just dismissed the bad thoughts. So that morning we were completely unprepared," says Ms. Angelina says.

The family decided not to leave and stay at home. The woman explains that in the absence of green corridors, they were worried about whether her husband's 81-year-old mother would make it through all the Russian checkpoints. In addition, in early March, they took in IDPs from Oleksandrivka. This settlement in the Stanislavska community was on the front line for a long time and was almost completely destroyed.

"My husband had a small shop, which he eventually returned to work in, and I helped. At first we sold animal feed, then food. We had to live for something, or rather exist. The occupation is very scary," Angelina recalls.

The family's children have long lived separately: the eldest, Yevhen, in Poland, and the youngest, Kostiantyn, in another region of Ukraine. To help them understand what was happening at home, Angelina Vetrova started taking notes and sending them to Yevhen via text messages in various messengers. Unlike talking on the phone, the written notes made it possible to re-read them, and thus better understand what the occupiers were doing. As soon as his son replied: "I saved it," the correspondence was deleted. This was done for security reasons. The occupiers could come to the house to search it at any time of the day or stop it for inspection right on the street. No one in the occupation, not even her husband, knew about the existence of Angelina's diary.

I communicate only with those people who were with me before the war, who are now helping me. There is not a single person in my environment who is not involved in the war, because I have nothing to talk about with that person. This does not mean that I am "soldered". It means that when I am sitting with a man who is somewhere abroad, he swam across the Tisza River and starts telling me how hard it was to swim. Well, I'm not interested in that.

I don't accept your choice, and I will find people who have not crossed the Tisza, but are running in the other direction, and I will feel comfortable with them. I do everything now to make me feel comfortable.

When a person does not know the basic things about the geography of the settlements that are being destroyed, I do not understand the context in which people live. I am a person who does not know who P. Diddy is. Does anyone really follow the news in Los Angeles? I don't understand this humor.

When I come to my former friends and they start discussing our Ukrainian celebrities, I don't know, I'm not interested, and I just don't come to these meetings. People automatically drop out, they don't even invite me. Because I'm toxic, I can't discuss the issues of any parties, but I can philosophize about where we're all going now. But they are not interested in that. That's it.

My environment has changed dramatically since the beginning of the full-scale war, several times, and I am very calm about it. In April 2022, a military man told me: "We're at war, don't get attached to people, to anybody. We can lose each other. Some of us will not wake up tomorrow. That's it."

And I don't get attached to people. As soon as a person leaves my life, a new one immediately takes his place. And I accept it very calmly. I have people who are lost, let's say, with whom I would like to return the relationship. But I realize that we will see each other after the war. Because now it's hard for me.

Image: Intent

I have been a volunteer since 2014. And it was just a completely different scale. We were delivering all kinds of medical supplies to Shyroky Lan, so later we met the guys, the snipers, and helped to assemble a group. There were various things there - kikimori, knives and all sorts of things. I spent about 25 thousand dollars back then. It was a huge amount at the time, and I thought it was a lot, but it was 2022.

Sometime in 2021, in October, I was offered by the guys to make inclusive stickers. I didn't understand what they were for. I ordered them. They were supposed to be produced by a Kyiv factory for a certain period of time. And we received them in June 2022. I had already forgotten about them, but they were very much needed. I mean, in cases of chest wounds. Many lives were saved, because there were about 1,200 of them on order. And this is a lot.

When the full-scale war happened, I was preparing with my family. I knew that it was 98% likely to happen. I wanted to take the family out somewhere. On the first day, we went to my relatives in Odesa region. We stayed with them for two days. I thought that I needed to go back to Odesa, take a gun, stand somewhere on the shore and shoot in the direction of the ships. I was waiting for something, I said I had to go there. And they said they would go with me. When we got back, I took my son and we went to spend money on glycerin, all to make these Molotov cocktails. And that's it, every day we spent 5-6 thousand dollars, which I had just accumulated before the invasion. I thought that I would send my family abroad with this money. We returned and spent all that money in about two weeks. And then what? We had to work, because it was March 8. We don't know how we feel about it, but my clients started calling. On March 6, we were already here. I was trading, and all the money we received here was sent. From the invasion until April, we spent about 1.8 million hryvnias. This is just for this period.

Кирило Бойко, Ігор Льов