On February 23, we met and discussed the level of danger, thinking about how to treat it. But nobody wanted to assume that such events can become real in the 21st century. There was a lot of anxiety, but no one thought it was possible.
How was the night of February 24?
Nothing happened then. They started bombing us on March 2. Before that we heard explosions somewhere far away, but that day an air bomb had fallen. At first, the most difficult thing was that shops, gas stations and pharmacies stopped accepting non-cash payments. You need cash, but you donʼt have it.
Didnʼt i think to leave in the first days? It was possible in the first days to go to Kramatorsk by car. There was one place [in the car], I offered it to Victoria (my girlfriend), but she refused. And then my parents changed their minds, because of our dog. He is quite large, it was unclear how to take him by train from Kramatorsk. There was an acquaintance who could take us out with a dog and cats, he planned to leave, but not right then. So we stayed in the city, actually, because of the dog.
The first two bombs were dropped either on my district or on the one where Victoria was. It happened on March 2. “Our” bomb didnʼt explode, and the one that fell in the center did. The center of Izium is on a mountain, itʼs one of the highest points in eastern Ukraine. At the bottom of it is the river Siversky Donets. After the air bombs, the Russians came to our area as if at home, brought equipment, artillery, and stood along the river. And they started shelling the city center, where there are multi-storey residential buildings. I have already read that 70-75% of these buildings are already destroyed.
Nearly to mid-March, my parents and I were sitting at home all the time. Then I saw the Russians taking out a column of their destroyed vehicles. And I decided that itʼs possible to go out, gather information, see what was happening in the city.