“The daughter received two bullets in the stomach.” Memories of the family about the escape from the fiery Irpen

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First – five hits under the house, and then – two bullets in the stomach. The Svystovych family from Irpen felt like the heroes of a brutal action movie – however, in real life. A year ago, the heroes of the Armed Forces expelled the Russian invaders from the Kyiv region, in particular, from Irpen. And the other day, the actor and UNICEF goodwill ambassador Orlando Bloom visited the city to remind the world about the atrocities of the Russians. After all, time should not erase from memory crimes against humanity. They will never be forgotten by the residents of Irpen – Myroslava and Mykhailo Svistovych and their two children: son Yaroslav and daughter Lada. “Ukrainian Truth. Life” as part of the “Hide Your Own” project tells the story of a family that, although wounded, got out of the fiery Irpen. “My head is full of concrete and glass” Shells began to fly right under the Svistovych house in the very first days of the full-scale invasion. People felt like a live target for the Russian military. So they arranged a place in the basement and for a while migrated from the apartment to the storage room and vice versa. But in a few days, enemy mines did reach the family home – it was like a terrible dream in reality. That day the family was at home. Daughter Lada is bathing in the bathroom. And the hostess Myroslava bakes flatbreads – both to eat themselves and to bring to the neighbors in the basement. The man opens the window to ventilate. And just as he leaves – a projectile flies directly under the window! Myroslava Svistovych “All the windows were blown out in an instant, and debris flew into the apartment, breaking our TV and wardrobe. The walls, floor, and ceiling were cut. And in general, the walls of our house (it is old, still Soviet) are all in holes from the debris. And I out of fear, I ran out into the corridor in a second, I’m standing – my head is full of concrete, glass and, surprisingly, not a single cut,” Myroslava Svistovych recalls. The door to the room where the daughter was washing was blown away by the blast wave. And the fragment of the projectile ricocheted straight into the bath. He hit the very side at the top: if it had been a few centimeters higher, he would have hit the girl. It was the first acutely dangerous moment that Lada experienced. The second will take place in a few days, and the Russian weapon will still get the 22-year-old girl. The cat that was sitting on the window suffered the most from that explosion: a fragment fell directly on his head and put out his eye. The poor fellow fell asleep in an instant from fright. “And then a solid movie begins. My daughter loves animals very much. So she hastily gets dressed and rushes to catch that cat. The husband and his son run headlong to catch the daughter. And at this time, mines are exploding all around! It was simply terrifying. We counted about five arrived. They literally grabbed my daughter by force and shoved her into the basement. And the wounded cat returned to us later, we treated him, but it was not possible to save the eye,” Miroslava recounts. Daughter Lada “jumped out of the car on the go” Having survived the shelling of the apartment, the Svistovych family realized that they might be less lucky next time. So, on March 7, they began to prepare for departure. People were evacuated from their basement in 6-7 cars, at that time 16-20 townspeople remained there, the rest left. And it so happened that the man got into one car with one dog, the son got into another car with another dog. And a mother with a daughter and a wounded cat – at three. And in these “Zhiguly” there was still a free place. So the driver decided to pick up someone else for evacuation and did not go with all the cars along Sobornia Street, but went to the parallel one – University Street. “My daughter is sitting next to the driver, I’m in the back seat. And suddenly I see a scary picture: the windshield is flying apart. I understand that they are shooting at us from machine guns. The events unfold instantly, but as if in slow motion. I turn my head to my daughter – next to her the glass of her head also shatters into pieces. I shout: “Lada, bend down!” And she can’t, because she has a carrier with a cat on her lap. But she didn’t hear me, because everything was whistling in her ears from the bullets. I then turn my head to the driver, and he is slowly leaning to the side unconscious, the door of the Zhiguli opens and he falls out. I still don’t know if he is alive or dead. I didn’t see blood, but it’s certain that he was wounded,” the woman recalls. And then the car continued its movement without a driver. Myroslava understood that now they would either crash or they would continue to be shelled. Therefore, it is necessary to somehow get out of the car. So she shouted to her daughter to jump out. And she herself grabbed two backpacks, a bag with documents and jumped out of the car on the go. But it so happened that the force of her jump turned the car, and it began to move in the opposite direction. And Miroslava is lying on the side of the road and realizes that her daughter did not jump out. And then the car reaches the edge of the road and crashes into a ditch. The woman froze. But in a moment the car door opens and the daughter gets out. “Thank God, I think she’s alive! I start looking around and see that three Russian soldiers with machine guns are approaching us a hundred meters away. Of course, my first thought is that they’re going to kill me now. I signal my daughter to the opposite side of the road to lie down. And she herself ducked down and ran to her. I say that we will probably have to run away without the cat, because we will all die. But the daughter insisted: “I will not leave the cat!”, – recounts Myroslava. “I was waiting for us to be shot in the back.” Then Myroslava quickly became to think about how to act. First, I called my relatives and ran to tell them what had happened. And as soon as I finished the conversation, machine gunmen approached. “I understand that my daughter’s life may depend on how I behave now. And she remembered the psychological technique that when a woman asks her husband for help, he seems to become attached to her,” says the woman. And now the Russian soldiers are approaching Myroslava with Lada, and the woman takes a risk and extends her hand to them and addresses them in Russian: “Help, please.” They were very surprised at such behavior. And they began to ask who these women were and who they were talking to on the phone. Myroslava explained that they were civilians and wanted to evacuate, they were calling the man. Then the occupiers ordered him to drop the phone and kicked him. They also asked why they were not leaving via Sobornia. Myroslava explained the situation. And in the end, the Russians allowed the women to leave. “We got up, I took my backpacks, my daughter – the cat, and we are leaving. Everything is thundering around, and we have a kilometer to go. And when we were moving away from these machine gunners, I expected that they would shoot us in the back. So I made Lada do everything: “Run-run.” At that moment, I did not know that my daughter was injured. The wounds were not visible under the jacket. There was almost no blood, just a few drops on her shoulder, and I thought she was slightly cut by the glass from the window. We go, and Lada keeps falling behind and falling behind. And I want to get out of danger as soon as possible so much that I don’t notice how bad she is, that she is grabbing her side. And she is silent, does not say anything. “She is only firmly holding the cat carrier mutilated by the shelling – it had six holes in it, that is, three bullets hit it,” the woman recalls. As soon as Myroslava and Lada stepped out onto the Soborna, a volunteer car picked them up and drove them to the Romanivsky Bridge, which connects the city with Kyiv . And when they started to go down to the masonry under the broken bridge, the volunteer asked Lada: “Are you sick? Carry you?” And the girl quietly said: “Yes, carry.” “And only then did I understand that my daughter was injured. All the time, while we were walking, she was tormented by pain, like a stone in her stomach. And she kept silent, didn’t confess: she was afraid that I would take it upon myself to carry her in my arms, and the cat would have to be abandoned. In other words, I worried more about the cat than about myself,” Myroslava says, crying. After Lada’s wounds, “Koftina was completely covered in blood.” So the women moved to the other side of the river. There they put Lada on a stretcher, cut her jacket open. a picture of her daughter’s injury. Her blouse was completely covered in blood. Lada was hit by two bullets. One penetrated the right sternum – the mammary gland. And the second bullet hit the stomach and tore a thick lump. Thank God, the vital organs remained intact. “The daughter is very provided timely medical assistance. Because according to doctors, with abdominal injuries – two hours, peritonitis and death. We were quickly taken to Akademmistechko. Only here we finally met a man with a son. An ambulance was also waiting there. We were transferred from one car to another and taken to the hospital, where an operation was immediately performed,” Myroslava recalls. Already at home, Myroslava noticed that she had a bullet mark on her hood. That is, the woman was saved from being hit in the head by just a few centimeters. For some time mother and daughter were in the hospital until Lada got stronger. At that time, the husband and son lived in the office at work. And then the family was supported by friends: they allowed us to live in their apartment in Kyiv for free, paying only for utilities. “We got a peculiar a chain of mutual assistance. Because these acquaintances of ours, in their turn, now live with other acquaintances who left the war abroad. But in Ukraine, they have a house left, which needs to be looked after, because, unfortunately, the marauders did not go anywhere. And our friends are guarding that house, so to speak,” the woman adds. A year has passed since those events. But the Svystovych family’s apartment in Irpen still stands without windows – they destroyed 80% of the city’s houses. As of today, the family has managed to replace the broken batteries. But the furniture and appliances are completely destroyed. The blast wave caused the pipes in the kitchen to collapse, so it is still impossible to use the water in the apartment. But the family hopes that they will still be able to return home in the summer. Daughter Lada, after being injured, fortunately fully recovered and feels great, continuing to save animals. In addition to the cat that survived the shelling, the generous girl, with the support of her relatives, saved seven more cats, two dogs and a couple of birds. *** On the “Pryhystok” website, caring Ukrainians can offer housing for displaced people by placing relevant ad. So IDPs can find temporary shelter in any region of Ukraine or abroad, for a few days or for a longer period. The filter system will help you easily find an option that meets your criteria and quickly contact the owner. The site works in 40 languages. This is a completely volunteer initiative. It was launched on the first day of the full-scale invasion by People’s Deputy of Ukraine Halyna Yanchenko. Later, the “Shelter” program received state support. Homeowners who sheltered displaced persons receive compensation from the state for the payment of communal services – 900 hryvnias per person per month. Victoria Yarizhko, specially for UP. Life

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