The story of Mykola Kostenko from the village of Moshchun, Kyiv Oblast, who survived the Russian occupation
AUTHOR:
Mykola understood that Russia could start a full-scale war. He had been thinking about it since 2014, when Russian troops invaded Donbas and occupied Crimea.
When Mykola woke up on February 24, 2022, he didn't immediately find out that the war had begun. He realized it when he saw helicopters flying over his village. Women and children were standing on the street, watching the Russians advance. Mykola asked his fellow villagers to run away from the street and hide. Enemy helicopters were flying to Hostomel, and launched strikes there in order to land troops.
Meanwhile, Mykola packed his emergency suitcase and collected his documents. He and his family dragged their beds into the basement. Mykola's wife, his daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren all took shelter there. During lulls in the shelling, they came. Mykola himself did not hide in the basement
Mykola says the Russians shelled Moshchun very often, especially in the final days of the occupation. Drones flew overhead day and night. Mykola's wife, daughter, and grandchildren evacuated from the village, while he and his son-in-law remained behind. Local men helped the 72nd Brigade, carried ammunition, and blew up bridges. Mykola prepared coffee and tea for Ukrainian defenders.
From March 4 to 10, heavy shelling began in the part of the village where Mykola's house was. First, an enemy shell hit the workshop near the house. Then it flew into his house, his brother's house, and another neighbor's house. Everything instantly caught fire and burned furiously.
Fortunately, Mykola was not at home at that time. When he came home to the sight of his home burning down,. Mykola had a two-story house with a bathroom, boiler, refrigerator, freezer, four TVs, a computer, and a laptop. Mykola's daughter is fond of baking, so there were a lot of kitchen appliances at home. In Mykola's workshop, many tools were burned. Only the workshop’s walls remained.
One of Mykola's neighbors wanted to take his mother out of the village, but when he went to start his car, he was hit by an enemy mortar. Another neighbor was killed by a shell fragment when he climbed out of his basement. The Russians shot three more of Mykola's acquaintances.
Mykola also saw the bodies of dead Russian soldiers. In particular, he saw Kadyrovites and soldiers from Buryatia.
Mykola's plans for the future are to rebuild and live on, and to be happy with his children and grandchildren. Mykola has held ill-will towards Russians since 2015. He has a cousin living in Russia, who said in 2015 that Russian troops would come to Ukraine and "protect" him. After these words Mykola stopped talking to her.
"I don't consider them (Russians) to be people! This is a horde! This is worse than a horde," Mykola says.
This material was created based on testimonies collected by documenters of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group.
These pictures are created by artificial intelligence. They are NOT real. They are illustrations of the stories we tell. Most of these stories could not have been fixed by the camera. At the same time, there is documentary work by hundreds of Ukrainian and international photographers who produce real, and so much painful, documentation of this war. Check photographs by Oleksandr Glyadelov, Maksym Dondiuk, Mstyslav Chernov and Yevhen Malolietka, Andriy Dubchak, Yulia Kochetova, and many others.