“We called the bus driver, Kolia, who was supposed to take the children, parents and staff. He says that he is now in the village and has removed the driver’s seat in his neoplan. An hour later, he changed his mind and said that he would not go anywhere because it was dangerous and he would not be able to take the children to Kyiv (very soon Russian troops burned his bus).
We understood that we do not have the proper information about a safe route and there is no way to safely take children, including children with critical cases.
We began to prepare for a long-term stay and understood that the availability of food, medicine, drinking water and safety is critically important. We began planning what to do if and when Russian troops enter the city.
Our team called everyone possible to get the children out of the hospital, all to no avail. Time was working against us. Shelling began, Russian aircrafts were in the sky.
There was no connection with some of the villages. In several villages, convoys of Russian vehicles were already passing. The police started teaching civilians how to prepare molotov cocktails.
The children’s parents came to the hospital, we were talking about how to protect the hospital. The hospital needed security personnel and weapons.
Two volunteer centers that were set up in two different schools were destroyed, at that moment, it became clear that there are no rules in this war and they will destroy everything.
We still had hope that we would be evacuated from the danger zone.
Children were worried. Parents moved the beds from the rooms to the corridors, to keep the children away from the windows.
We set up a flip chart board with stickers, and wrote down everything necessary for the hospital and for the survival of the children.
Then, we started to prepare the basements to function like shelters. The basements were forgotten and did not suit children. The conditions are completely unsanitary, even for healthy people, we needed building materials. Maryna Semenenko (Reiko) and “Vena” helped, they gave film, primer and other materials.
They went to pharmacies, collected consumables and medications for the children. The city is badly mutilated, burnt Ukrainian tanks are seen in the Masaniv district. There is a pharmacy that provided us with everything we needed for the children, Yehor Pavlenko and Serhii Zaits and I quickly packed everything and left.
The men called and said that the city is unlikely to survive, that we should prepare for the worst. We prepared to defend ourselves…
Artillery shelling had taken over the city. News about many dead had reached us.
People were dying without medicine from artillery and MLRS shelling. While we were driving around the city collecting supplies, there was a partially destroyed house on the roundabout near the tank, our car slowed a little, we saw wounded and dead people, I forgot where we were going.
Journalists and doctors from abroad call us at all times of the day. The phone was discharging every 4 hours from the amount of calls and I couldn’t bear it anymore. People donated money and we bought everything necessary for the department and the hospital. We got some things for free, as well. We believed that everything would return to normal in 2-3 weeks. People wrote a lot to us and supported us.
The tragedies of war did not have to wait long. An airstrike brought the first seriously wounded to our hospital. Doctors were horrified by the disfigurement of those wounded as the doctors tried to keep the wounded in this world. FAB-500, half-ton aerial bombs, were dropped on the city at night. Ukraine Hotel was destroyed by an Iskander missile, also at night.
The children spent the nights in the basement for 4-5 days, then their beds were moved to the first floor. This was due to the fact that the children’s blood test results were consistently dropping. Time is, again, against us.
Luda, Daryna and other members of the organization are trying to help with supplies and evacuation. Yehor Pavlenko joined the Red Cross, officially the Red Cross renounced aid. However, all the honor and respect to the members of the Red Cross who helped us with the evacuation of children. Little by little, the permission to leave is beginning to emerge. We are waiting for the window to leave.
We spent some nights in the basement. Sometimes we spent the night in the corridors by candlelight, but there was little to no romance in it.
There is a morgue near our hospital, on the third day a truck with a refrigerator was already parked near it. The morgue could not accommodate all the dead, there was simply nowhere to put them. People who were simply standing in line to buy bread were killed by enemy artillery. We began to get used to the sound of sirens and constant fear, the world in our heads changed.
At one quick moment, we decided to leave urgently, everyone began looking for transportation. Children began to “wither” before our eyes and any extra moment in the hospital can be fatal. Katsaps have almost surrounded the city, Orlan were constantly patrolling the sky and helping the artillery destroy everything around.
