A family from the village of Verkhnetoretsky, Donetsk region, destroyed life a second time

They recently had a very good basement. Big, reliable. The best on the street. They hid there, and nine children - their and neighboring - could calmly lie down.

Vasily, Irina’s husband, set the “bourgeois” stove, strengthened the ceiling with the channel, brought the battery, cable, flashlights and food in advance that it does not spoil for a long time. (The Pashchenko family - experienced people, similar to survived in their Verkhnetoretsky in 2014 and evacuation in the nearby Slavyansk too.) And the neighbors have a damp basement, only sit on the steps. So they sat, and the men supported the doors so that they would not bear the explosion. But it took it anyway.

Then they ran to Pashchenko. Small at night were put to sleep on mattresses, and in passages for reliability and depreciation, in which case they laid car stingrays.

But last Sunday at 5 in the morning an air bomb hit the house.

[Further in the text - Irina’s story about the actions of the Armed Forces].

It was gone at home, the barn was gone, there was no car, the basement almost resisted. Only a part of the brick and the beam collapsed. Adults covered the children with themselves, took the main blow. Therefore, there was a little blood, which was stopped by improvised means. The elder, 14-year-old Arseny, turned out to be a head broken and a hand was broken. In the younger, 6-year-old Miron, knocked out several teeth from the upper jaw. Then, of course, the question of "wait more or already run?" no longer arose.

We got to the surface. The neighbor said that he had a car on the go, and Vasily is a professional driver and mechanic-AC. But after two streets you need to somehow get under bombing. Therefore, I had to wait again.

... I convey the beginning of a conversation with Irina Pashchenko from memory. I called her as soon as I found out what happened, from the street, and then we have a siren, air anxiety. To the house and to the bomb shelter, about the same distance, that is, far away. She hid in an underground crossing, caught her breath, took out a recorder from a backpack ...

I know the Pashchenko family for five years.

Family on Zarechnaya Street

Ira, a teacher of the German language, is the heroine of my material “Near Zero” (went to “New” on September 8, 2017). Then I spent in the village of Verkhnetoretskoye, Donetsk region, in the “gray zone”, near the demarcation line (it seems to be outdated?), In their house on Zarechnaya Street for several days.

This is what remained in the memory: twilight, chirping for grasshoppers, a table in a gazebo under the grapes. Miron only learns to walk. Third -grader Arseny is preparing for the holiday "Knowledge Day". Grandmother, Elena Andreevna, in the past, the school principal, bakes pancakes and at the same time checks how the grandson learned the poem, although this is too excellent. Papa Vasya, a tributor driver, sleeps in the hall, on a new couch. Everyone is respectfully protect his sleep to dinner. Vasily continues overhaul in the house: warm floors, laminate, hinged ceiling.

- ... Life here will be, of course, good. Only those who were killed will no longer be, ”Arseny argues.

In the evenings in the gazebo, the light was not included - it is forbidden. Sometimes a machine gun scribbled at night, and single automatic queues beat, dull, far from a bell. Everyone slept except me.

School, kindergarten "Topolk" and the House of Culture, three pride of Verkhnetoretsky, I saw the next day. They were not just brought into the state order after that terrible that “arrived” into the village, so much so that water left the wells. For kids, they even made a psychological unloading room-a dry bath with multi-colored balls, funny batuta seats, color music. The tool for the project was allocated by the representative office of the Danish Council for Refugees in Ukraine and the US government.

Then Arseny suggested that I show my favorite places and sights of Verkhnetoretsky. Only forbiddenly shook his head as soon as I tried to get off the road to a small wasteland:

- Where? And if the stretch marks are left?

For the winter holidays, Ira brought the elder to Kyiv - to show the main Christmas tree of the country. We walked along Khreshchatyk, shining with illumination, rode the subway, ate the sweets right out of the box.

- What world do you have here! - admired Arseny.

By the summer, the whole family made a passport, and Pashchenko all together, with the baby, flew to relax to the sea, in Egypt. We sometimes corresponded on Facebook*.

And today, common friends handed over: Irina and the children and mother had just miraculously escaped from Verkhnetoretsky to the village of Pokrovskoye, Dnipropetrovsk region, to her husband's relatives. Vasily took the family and immediately returned back - to evacuate those who stayed because the second car could not leave. There is still no connection with him.

In the nucleus

Irina Pashchenko:

- ... communication may not be for various reasons, right? The phone was discharged ... People up to 40 shelling counts per day. And they already share where air bombs, light bombs, such, you know - with parachutes.

For the first time, we did not have "grades." And there were no air strikes. And Miron only once flew by plane, he did not really hear these sounds at all. And a whistle - I can’t pass on when it is already flying down. A neighbor on the corner is a direct hit in the house. So she remained lying in bed. Many people killed, wounded. We do not know that with Vasina’s mother, she is on the edge of the village, live along our street, to the side to the line of distinction between the former. And there was no way to call. The latter were evacuated from the center, fled to the car.

[Further in the text - a description of the destruction.]

It didn’t start on February 24, but before. Bahalo has been constantly constantly. Either you can hear from Gorlovka, then from Avdeevka. And on March 7–8, we began to hear some terrible weapon. We still sat in the basement and said: "We are like in the nucleus, in the middle." It thunders around, but we can’t move in the same direction, we don’t know simply - where and what to do.

On March 11, we have disappeared. But we thought - well, maybe they would do it by Monday, it has already happened. And on Saturday, for dinner, this began ... although Arseny went out again, Pope Vasya helped the rubble to disassemble. And Miron was not on the street since March 13. He went out of air for the first time yesterday ( March 19 - O. M. ), shouted: "This is not my house!"

[Further in the text - a description of destruction]

Cried: "I was killed!" - And lost consciousness.

We bought this house from people unfinished, and there was already a basement under it. Probably the old hosts remembered the war with Hitler. Because when we remade, the floors were torn off in the rooms, there was a kopanka (a homemade shallow mine. - O. M. ). And in it the bottles are rolled up. Mom says: it seems to be filled with smalt, they did the reserves. We did not open them, of course. And the basement is so capital. Honestly - we thought that if everything is the same as the first time, then it would be enough, we will leave. Vasya said: "Do not worry, we can live."

For the first time in the center, they also beat everything then - the proposal, depot, mail. But there was no one as now. And now - to death, it turns out.

[Further in the text - a story about victims among the civilian population and destruction].

There were still people in Verkhnetoretsky. On those streets where there is no connection, and no one will run after them. From the 11th there is no light, Internet and mobile communications. And they generally have no ideas, in what light they are.

Olya, ruins, ruins ... I spoke today with my sister, she is in Lugansk (under the control of the "LPR"). I think that suddenly they have something about Verkhnetoretska, they have something about their news? And she replies: “I’m afraid to convey it to you ... On our TV, they said that on March 17 in Verkhnetoretsky there was the mayor of Gorlovka (under the control of the“ DPR ”), he spoke with the population, promised that they would have a light and everything will be fine ...” What is the light?! We have no pillars, not a single one is left! Who do they lie?

Today I learned from the director of our school: one teacher, for example, remained in the village so far. She has a very elderly dad, core. Maybe it’s no longer dead, it is impossible to check, it is impossible to reach his house. And the teacher has this daughter in the fourth grade. You can’t leave one child alone and you won’t take your grandfather to visit with you. In our group, in Viber, they advise: "Let them try to go out at night." What does "at night" mean? They also shoot at night. And dogs are running around the streets ...

I arrived, Olya, in a fur coat, which I bought 20 years ago, in the basement in it sat and took refuge, and with a suitcase of documents. With receipts paid for the light.

For the removal of garbage for a year ahead, they paid. I put them there in advance, because in the basement is damp. And with a first -aid kit.

Today in Pokrovsky we went to the market, bought panties, socks for children, because they washed something, and there’s nothing to change into.

There is money, yes. Well, we had been in distance learning lately, the administration took care, threw a hundred percent of the salary to the teachers on the cards. And a little cash remains. Today I was frightened - I went to the store, and the saleswoman for me: “You are probably from the Donetsk region? Yesterday the guy went in, puts the card from the smartphone to the terminal - he does not react, and the plastic works. Have you lost your plastic? "

Now the main thing is to wait for Vasya. Of course, we will stay in Pokrovsky. Go to Western Ukraine - there are already full of ours, we called up with friends. And renting housing is expensive. And sitting on a humanitarian, in the gym somewhere ... my mother is a core, she won’t lie on the floor, her leg with a plate, does not bend, moves with the crutch, you would not recognize at all ... Arseny already in the 7th grade, Miron in the basement on March 16, they celebrated six years. My friends took toys on their homes as a gift.

Mirosh is a serious guy: “This is only a rehearsal, right? And spring will come, I will have a real birthday, right? "

Vasya will have to look for work. He worries: "I am nothing more than the steering wheel, I can’t ..."

On Monday-Tutor I will go to the authorities. Here, they told me, there are already a lot of immigrants, I need to register. This is somehow calculated, probably-how many new teachers for the district, the region has been added. Our director said that from Monday they give two weeks of vacation. And so they were at a distance, and now the holidays are completely behind, bad. And it is necessary that by the end of the year there was a salary, even for the most domestic - bread, milk for children.

And you too, dear, hold on. We are worried about you.

* Facebook (Facebook), the social network of the American company META was recognized as extremist in Russia by court decision. Together with Facebook, Extremist was also recognized as the popular social network Instagram.