{"id":222991,"date":"2022-11-22T11:49:44","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T09:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/z-syevyerodonetska"},"modified":"2022-11-22T11:56:48","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T09:56:48","slug":"z-syevyerodonetska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/z-syevyerodonetska","title":{"rendered":"They did not expect it to be so appalling. Vadym and Katya from Severodonetsk talk about war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This town in the north of Donbas appeared when a large chemical plant was built nearby in Soviet times, so the first name of the settlement \u2013 Lyskhimbud – did not raise any objections.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there was some confusion later. As soon as the workers\u2019 settlement grew to the scale of a town, it was necessary to change its name. Even now there are people, especially abroad, who consider Severodonetsk to be northern Donetsk. It is not. The town got its name from the River Siverskyi Donets.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also confusion with belonging to the opposite parties during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Eight years ago, this border territory was occupied by separatists supported by Russian troops. Later they were kicked out. Today, the \u201cRussian world\u201d reigns in Severodonetsk again, and a lot of people wonder: is it for long? Anyway, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are getting closer and closer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that affected the local population. The scared people had to flee the dangerous town. As of June, there were no more than 8,000 people in Severodonetsk.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From russia to Ukraine<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Katya and Vadym are a family from Severodonetsk. They have been together for 12 years. They met the \u201cgreat war\u201d at home, in their apartment. Like many people in the Luhansk region, they expected everything to pass quickly – the town would be recaptured, and the locals would march with Ukrainian flags down their native streets. But that was not to be – the fighting was getting fiercer, so in March the couple decided to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kateryna Tikhonova is Russian. She came to Ukraine, to Severodonetsk, in 2010, and remained to live there. \u201cI met Vadym at a writer’s forum. He invited me to his place, I came and stayed there. I fell in love with this country and realized that I will stay here and now this is my country,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vadym Skumbriev is a native of Severodonetsk, a software engineer, worked in the Severodonetsk archive. \u201cAnd I am an animal photographer. I take pictures of animals, sometimes people. Rather a housewife than anyone else,\u201d says Katya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe lived in a new district in Severodonetsk, District 77, \u201cBombay\u201d, Vilesova Street, next to the church. The locals will understand,\u201d Vadym says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also says that what happened in 2014 cannot be compared with what they have experienced since February 24, 2022, when Russia began bombing Ukrainian cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe outbreak of the war did not come as a surprise to me, because I had followed the news and understood that war was inevitable. Just a few days before it began, I told my friends there would be a war and asked them not to lose touch. So on February 24, I went routinely to withdraw cash from an ATM and so on. Then, when the shelling started, of course, there was a slight shock, because in 2014 we weren\u2019t fired upon. But already on March 5, Grads hit our house. It quickly became habitual, and everyday problems came to the fore – how to find a place with a mobile signal, how to keep warm, because it was +5\u2070 in the apartment, etc. So we began to perceive it all calmly, as a usual routine. Later, when I arrived in Dnipro, I began to listen to the news and look at photos and videos. When we drove through the city, of course, we could see the destruction, especially in the eastern areas, but several months had passed since then, and it was bombed all the time. Now I look at the ruins of the city, the ruins of the Ice Palace, the ruins of the theater and realize that I walked those streets a year ago,\u201d says Vadym.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katya also recalls the experience of 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn 2014, I was in Severodonetsk. It cannot be compared with the current situation. Sometimes we stood on the porch, listening to the explosions – and it was d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu. We also stood on the porch in 2014 and there were explosions somewhere far away. But what happened next was an unforgettable experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They stayed because of a friend<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The spouses say that as soon as the full-scale invasion began, Katya\u2019s relatives called her to Russia, but they decided that to stay in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would never go to that country. They called us, but we let them know at once that we would not go there. And the second reason why we did not leave was trivial. I have a friend Anya, we took her children to Severodonetsk, because she lived in Metelkino, and her children stayed with us for three weeks. There were seven people and four German shepherds in the apartment. We just could not leave because we felt responsible, we had to save and take care of the children. Now my friend and the girls are fine. They are as safe as possible under the current circumstances,\u201d says Kateryna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the time they stayed in their apartment on the first floor of an apartment building. The location of the house made it safer than the basements around. Moreover, even now the house is in more or less normal condition, compared to the town. And, just imagine, every day they took the dogs for a walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery day we took them for a walk. In fact, there were advantages in this, because after March 5, electricity was cut off – the substation was hit. As far as I remember, the heating was turned off even earlier, and the mobile signal and the Internet disappeared. And you know that Maslow\u2019s pyramid must have WiFi at the very bottom. We found a place in the wasteland about 300 meters north of the house and would run there with the dogs when it was quiet, catch a signal, scroll the news and text our friends that we were alive, everything was fine with us. I documented, recorded the time, and wrote: \u201cOur house was shelled with Grads.\u201d I could send messages in the morning. It was very cold, and a mobile signal was very poor even there. You come there, take out your mobile, wait for it to load. Your fingers are numb, something is exploding nearby, and you look at your house and wonder if you can reach it in time if anything happens. Then a mobile signal appears, you want to read more news but realize that you\u2019d better go home. We turned around with the dogs and walked on. Later, a mobile signal appeared in the yard. It was poor, but we had it. That was how we lived for two weeks,\u201d Vadim recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In addition to texting his relatives, he kept a diary of events in Severodonetsk, with the dates and time of all the shelling he had witnessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI started keeping a diary just to get hold of myself. I had tried keeping a diary before, but failed. And now there were events worth recording. I kept an account of the time and wrote briefly: \u2018Grad hit our house,\u2019 \u2018The neighboring house was hit,\u2019 \u2018Fire at the market.\u2019 The market was bombed on March 12. There was very heavy shelling. The neighboring 9-story buildings burned from top to bottom there. Our house was also hit then. The blast knocked out a picture from the apartment above us. A watercolor landscape and a yellow ball were on the snow. On March 5, the roof of our house was hit; the blast knocked out a reinforced concrete wall, and a yellow kid ball from an apartment on the fifth floor,” Vadym says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat yellow kid ball is one of the memories I\u2019ll never forget,\u201d Kateryna adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We were lucky in terms of living conditions<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe lived on the first floor. We were very lucky with water. Water disappeared almost immediately, as did the electricity, but there was pressure in the pipes, and we always had water. It trickled down from the upper floors. While it was flowing, we filled all the containers, everything we could. As long as the shops were open, there were crazy queues of 100-200 people at the Amstor supermarket. We went there and shopped. Luckily, we had money. We stocked the freezer and the fridge. We bought cereals, pasta, whatever we could, and it saved us. The food did not spoil even when electricity went off. We lived on it for a very long time even after we left,\u201d Kateryna recalls those weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the water ran out, they used snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe used snow for technical needs. Anyone who was in Severodonetsk knows that a huge snow fell in late February. Never in my lifetime did I see knee-deep snow,\u201d Kateryna says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe cleaned dishes with snow. We collected it in basins and buckets,\u201d Vadym adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the light and gas were completely gone, they cooked over a fire in the yard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter March 5, gas lines were ruptured and we were left without utilities at all. We cut down a dry tree in the yard. I collected branches. I had a machete that I used to chop reeds with. I walked around, chopped branches and piled them in the yard. We cut the tree with an ax and then sawed it. We cooked over open fire: tea, soups, etc. Of course, explosions and shots were heard constantly. But we set up a kitchen next to the entrance. You can usually hear strikes: sometimes, it\u2019s only a volley, and sometimes, a volley and a roar. This means that a Grad or a projectile is flying. If it whistles, it\u2019s a mine. Then everyone rushes to hide in the entrance. Anyway, there are iron doors, ceilings, there\u2019s some protection there. Of course, it isn\u2019t safe. The artillery fired at our yard. A concrete slab was knocked out; the house was cut by shell fragments. But no one from our house died when we were leaving,\u201d Vadym recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of the couple’s departure, about 10 of their neighbors remained in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n