Russian occupation forces blew up cars carrying Ukrainian volunteers who were delivering bread to civilians in Chernihiv; a Russian sniper opened fire on people fetching water from the local river. Two residents of Chernihiv share their memories of the month-long blockade of their city, their experiences living in wartime, and their dreams.
“Our alley is in the suburbs; the GPS doesn’t recognise it. When you get closer to the city, give me a call. I’ll guide you”, Alla tells me over the phone.
We enter Chernihiv via the new road bridge over the Desna. It has been fully operational since early July 2023, but it is still temporary; road works are still ongoing. The Russians destroyed the previous bridge connecting Kyiv to Chernihiv on March 23, 2022. Back then, at least six aerial bombs were dropped on the site. The ‘Road of Life’—the evacuation route for Chernihiv residents—was cut off instantly.
The consequences of the military operations are still visible today. Damaged and burnt houses, a crater after an airstrike on the stadium field… The hell of brutal daily bombings in the city lasted for over a month. “One month, week, and day” specifies Alla. The woman herself carefully recorded the bloody timeline of those events hour by hour. She says it was a nightmare. The Russians continuously shelled Chernihiv, using all possible types of ammunition. March 13, 2022, became Alla’s darkest day. On that day, two Russian shells hit her house. She and her husband were at home at that moment.
Alla welcomes us first into her courtyard and then inside the house. A large black shepherd dog runs towards us; he is gentle and calm. A man follows, saying he just fed the hens. “These are our saviours… During the city blockade, they saved us from starving to death. They laid an egg – we shared it between us two – and we had something to eat”, he explains. He goes to the garage to put the kettle on and prepare us tea. “I never thought I’d have to live in a garage at this age. Thank God the fire didn’t reach it, so we have some sort of shelter”, sighs Leonid. “But the house burnt to the ground. The greatest relief is that we didn’t die in the flames”.
“We cooked under the bombardments. We took turns leaving the shelter, even though we knew we could die.”
The Soukretny family dedicated nearly a decade to building their family home. Tirelessly working throughout their lives, they bought land and invested their entire savings into construction. Envisioning a tranquil haven for their retirement, Alla, aged 59, and her husband, a decade her senior, aimed to create a space with spacious rooms, warm floors, comfortable furnishings, and modern appliances. Despite their children living in separate households with their families, the new house embodied their longstanding aspirations. On Alla’s phone, a video captured the enchanting scene in their garden on December 31, 2021 – gentle snowfall, flickering lanterns, and a beautiful family home. Full of anticipation, the couple eagerly welcomed the new year, hoping it would usher in an era of happiness.
“But, the Russian invaders arrived, claiming to ‘liberate’ us. Instead, they ‘liberated’ us from a normal life, from our health, from our property… Essentially, they stripped us of everything. We were left with nothing,” the woman cries.
The couple finds it challenging to revisit that period. The emotional wounds haven’t healed. War represents millions of individual life tragedies, the pain of people that an outsider cannot fully comprehend. However, the world must be aware of this pain—not to forget it, and to hold accountable those who unleashed this terrible tragedy. Alla and Leonid are convinced of this, and that is why they are willing to revisit and remember everything.
“When the full-scale Russian invasion began, my husband and I were at home. We were sick with COVID, and we couldn’t hide in shelters to avoid putting others in danger,” says Alla. “We survived all the bombings in our house, whether it was airstrikes or mines. We heard all those things flying, whistling, burning. We stayed at home and prayed to God. And God had mercy on us because He let us live. But on one dreadful day, two shells hit our house. The rescuers, who later dismantled the debris, stated that these were 120-calibre shells”.
“A fire broke out, and we couldn’t get out because the door was blocked. My husband began hitting it with his body, breaking his ribs. He managed to push the door for about thirty centimetres; we went out, and I turned around to look behind me. We had a dog, a three-legged German Shepherd, and a cat living with us. At least we understood what was happening, but those poor animals, they were very scared of the bombings and had no idea what was going on”.
Alla starts crying again, then composes herself and continues. “I looked behind me, and I saw my dog crying. I had never seen our dog cry before. He must have realised that we had gotten out, but he was going to stay… and that the house was going to burn. I don’t know where I got this strength from, but I rushed back and pulled the dog out of the flames. But I couldn’t find the cat. He burned alive along with the house because, later, we couldn’t even find his bones. I posted an announcement on Facebook and wrote everywhere, thinking maybe he had run away somewhere. But no, he didn’t”.
“I don’t remember very well how we ended up in an air-raid shelter. I was in a state of terrible shock. The shelter was very cramped, but they found us a corner. We slept on the floor: my husband improvised a bed with cardboard, and people lent us a thin blanket. Our dog was next to us, warming us with his heat”.
“We live on the outskirts of Chernihiv, and the Russian occupiers positioned their troops nearby, bombarding the city mercilessly. Our Ukrainian defenders did their best to protect us. However, the odds were against us. Our soldiers were losing their lives, and even the volunteers were falling… I cannot think about those days without crying. The volunteers used to bring us at least a bit of food under the enemy’s fire. But there was one occasion when they didn’t come. We stayed hungry in the basement for three days, and there were three hundred of us. Later, we learned that the Russians had targeted the car of our volunteers; all of them lost their lives. The entire basement mourned for them. We started contemplating how to survive. We began gathering food—everyone contributed whatever they could find at home. We still had some canned goods in the cellar, along with vegetables like beets and potatoes… We had a large cauldron, and our neighbours had substantial cast-iron pots. We pooled everything together and started preparing food for the entire basement. Pasta, soups…”.
“Each day, we prepared and distributed small portions of food to everyone in the shelter to ensure survival. All of it took place amid constant gunfire. Despite the risks, people took turns leaving the shelter to cook, fully aware of the potential danger. The circumstances were demanding, and everyone felt sick. The conditions were harsh—it was cold, we lacked fresh air, and there was a shortage of medicine. People endured enormous suffering”.
Civilians came to the store to get bread, only to be shot down by the Russian troops while standing in the queue.
“There was no bread at all,” adds Leonid. “Sometimes, volunteers miraculously managed to bring some to Chernihiv. Once, I heard that bread was being distributed near the store, so I went there to check it out, amidst gunfire. But I didn’t make it… A shell exploded nearby; its fragment hit me and injured my neck. There was a behind me; a shell broke his leg. Emergency Ministry staff took care of him. I came back without bread. And the entire queue near the store was shelled. So many people died that day…”.
“We lost a lot of weight during that time,” sighs Alla. “I’ve lived with my husband for 41 years, but I’ve never seen him so thin. The first time we went to the neighbours to wash, and he undressed, I was scared – as if he was coming out of a concentration camp. I lost 15 kilos. Now, we’ve somewhat returned to how we were before. And how dirty we were! That’s what their “Russian world” is; that’s how they “liberated” us,” exclaims the woman.
“There was no water in the city at all; the enemy had cut it off. To wash, prepare anything, and even take medicine, one had to go to the Desna [the river that runs through the city] to fetch some water. On the other bank, an enemy snipers had taken their position. They would shoot at people, at us, civilians – just because we were coming to get water. It was terrifying… I saw that he had hit a man in the head… I don’t even know if he survived. Probably not. There was so much blood”.
The first week after these terrible events, Alla couldn’t walk anymore – her legs simply weren’t functioning. She would just sit and cry. “Why do they hate us so much, I wondered. Why are they destroying us? We lived in peace; we didn’t attack anyone,” she asks.
When the city was liberated in April 2022, Alla and her husband continued to live in their shelter for another four months. They had nowhere to go. Alla had a nervous breakdown and began experiencing severe abdominal pain. She was transported to the hospital and immediately underwent surgery. The doctor later explained that under the influence of significant stress, the gallbladder had literally started to rupture. If they had waited a little longer, they wouldn’t have been able to save her.
The woman recounts that to this day, her brain functions as follows: if an air raid alert sounds, it means the bombing is starting. At that moment, she can’t do anything – neither sleep nor eat. She can only wait for the alarm to stop.
At the hospital, she couldn’t go down to the shelter – the elevators were turned off during the air raid. And she thought to herself, “I’m on the 5th floor, with all these tubes in my body. Will I be lucky, or will everything be destroyed again?” Chronic stress had a major impact on her health.
Meanwhile, Leonid cleaned the garage, and volunteers helped him retrieve wooden pallets and two mattresses. After leaving the hospital, he could only bring his wife back to their garage. She had to return to the neurology department several times.
It wasn’t easy, but the woman pulled herself together and decided that she had to fight, regain her health, and not die, which, she’d say, would please the enemy.
“I went to see a psychologist. I had been looking for a specialist for a long time, and she saved me. She recommended art therapy classes. In her classes, we drew and made candles with our own hands. It was beneficial. I realised that I had to live,” Alla recounts. A teacher by profession, she has always enjoyed embroidery. Before the war, she had started embroidering icons using beads as if sensing a future threat. She embroidered many icons and gave them to her friends. Miraculously, all the friends to whom she gave them survived, and their property was not damaged.
Alla’s embroidered works decorate the walls of the small garage room where the couple now lives. Leonid built a stove so the room could be heated in winter; he set up a small bathroom. On the other side, behind the wall, the belongings of their daughter’s family are stored, whose house was also damaged during the bombing of Chernihiv.
“After what I went through, I didn’t pick up a needle for a long time,” Alla says. “And before last New Year, I wanted to embroider Christmas decorations. So, little by little, I returned to my hobby. I can’t embroider much because it’s not cheap. When I started art therapy, I met a woman who is an extraordinary person. An artisan. She is over 80 years old, but she sets such an example of optimism that she empowers people with her spirit. And now, I go to her class once a week. We draw together, we make Motanka dolls [small traditional fabric dolls wound with thread]. We have a territorial social centre in the city, where various programs are organised for the elderly. It hosts lectures on the history of Ukraine. I also remembered that I had a good voice and a good ear. We had our own karaoke; my husband and I used to sing together. And now, I’ll also sing once a week. Because you have to live”, explains Alla.
A shepherd dog rushes over when he hears a familiar word: Mriya [‘dream’ in Ukrainian]; that’s what his owners call him. “Our previous dog had a very sad story”, Alla says. “After saving him from the fire, he lived with us in the basement all the time. He became a kind of psychotherapist for us, especially for the children. The children were drawn to him. One might think that a big black shepherd dog should have scared them, but no, quite the opposite: he calmed everyone down, licked them, and they petted him. Our Moukhtar accepted everything from everyone. He never growled at anyone. This canine therapy helped the children a bit; they cried less often and were less stressed. As soon as they woke up, they went straight to Moukhtar”.
“And when we moved here, and I came back after the operation, he fell ill… Oncology. The vets fought fiercely for his life and didn’t ask a penny for his treatment. But in November 2022, he died. We went to the veterinary sterilisation centre, and you know… If God opens the way, then He shows the path… We had just arrived at the centre, and an animal appeared before me. That’s it! Moreover, his name is Mriya… A little later, I saw an online ad: a woman offered a little kitten for adoption. This little one looked so much like our cat, who had burnt alive… So, here is Stepan. Stepan Bandera [Ukrainian nationalist figure from the early 20th century – ed.]. Everything in our home is symbolic: Mriya, the dog, Stepan Bandera, the cat.
“Let the Russian invaders know that Bandera lives in this house!” adds Leonid with a smile. “They took away our peaceful old age and spoiled the childhood of our grandchildren,” adds Alla.
Thanks to the assistance of charitable organisations and foundations, the family is gradually rebuilding their destroyed home. The roof has been restored using the funds received from the Red Cross. As part of the support program from the Norwegian Council, windows and part of the ceiling have been installed, and the help of the international community has helped to install the interior doors. But many things are still missing: there is no electricity, no heating or water. Although it is not a home yet – just a shell and bare walls – Alla already dreams of filling it with indoor flowers.
“Polish families supported us a lot,” says the woman. A joint project of Caritas Poland and Caritas-Spes Ukraine, “From Family to Family,” supports Ukrainians who have suffered from the war. Ordinary Polish families collect funds and transfer them to support Ukrainians. “With these funds, we could last for more than a year buying food and medicine. I have a small pension – 2093 hryvnias (almost 45 pounds). I cut some pills in half to save money. But I can’t reduce all doses. For example, blood pressure medications. Otherwise, I will end up in the hospital again,” says Alla.
“A family from Poland sent us a lawnmower, an electric kettle, and pet food for dogs and cats. And it was like a gift before New Year 2023,” recalls Leonid. He adds, “It’s not the burnt house that I mourn so much, but the time the Russians stole from us. I miss my pets – my dog and a cat that died because of the war”.
“Who said the Russians were our brothers? No. They are not. Our brothers are the whole world that is helping us right now”, intervenes Alla. “I dream and pray for victory. And I don’t just pray… I am ready to speak and shout to the whole world about how important it is for us to liberate our land from the Russian occupiers. I know that when peace returns, we will rebuild everything. Ukrainians are a very hardworking nation; everything will be fine”.
Two large apple trees grow in the couple’s garden. Alla shows us a drying bag as she guides us. With her husband, they dry apples and deliver them to the soldiers on the front line.
“We don’t have much at the moment, but what we have, we will share without hesitation. My husband is an electrician. When our soldiers ask for help to repair damaged equipment, Leonid always helps them. We send gifts to the front so that our defenders feel our gratitude. Today, we must support them with all our strength. Because if God forbid, they cannot defend us, the Russians will bring the war back to us”.
