[memories] War Memories. Pt 1
Hi 👋 My name is Artem. And I don’t even know how to start my story.
Probably I’ll start from the very beginning.
I believe everyone already know what happens right now in Ukraine, my beautiful homeland.
You know that feeling, when you tell someone something that worries you a lot and you feel relaxed? Just because of this I have a strong feeling I must tell my story. The more of you know the truth, the more I feel I did right.
My life has turned upside down at 6:30 AM on 24th of February when my dad called me and said to gather all the must-have things and drive to their house — Russia officially started a war against Ukraine. I couldn’t believe this can be truth. Who could believe this can happen in 21st century? In a 2 minutes I woke up my son because of siren and 3 “booms” somewhere outside. After these sounds I understood — this is the reality and this reality is a war.
My wife called his father, he lives in Moscow, and we told him that his country started a war against us. Do you know what he told us? He told: “It’s your military blowing up firecrackers”. Honestly, if he was in front of me, I would punch him in his face. No words can describe my rage I felt at that moment. And I don’t even know how I overpowered myself against telling what I think about him.
In about hour dad called me and told that russian occupants are already in Semenivka, which about 15km far from Chernihiv. Honestly, that scared me. Despite understanding that I have to think clear, I had a panic attack.
In a 15 minutes we were on our way to my parents without clear or even approximate understanding of what awaits us in the near feature.
What was clear is that no matter what happens, we all want to live. And we want to live in free, democratic Ukraine. In country, where you don’t terrified by your government for freedom of speech and freedom of choice. In country, where you can go to the meeting without even thinking that someone will take you to the prison for the truth.
From the moment we arrived to my parents we stopped understanding what day of month is and we completely didn’t care what the day of week is. We counted days of war. Starting from the 24th of February there were no February for us. It was 1st day of the war, unprecedented and brutal war started by russian people.
That day my father and I started to equip the “bomb shelter”. Let me explain why I use quotes here. Our bomb shelter was nothing more than a basement of the building my parents live in. I saw what russian fascists did with such a buildings. If bomb hit such a building, that would be a total destroy. I have never, never prayed the lord like this in my life. Every minute, every second I was silent sitting in that shelter, I spoke to the God and asked him to save me and my family.
Honestly, I don’t remember the first time we went to the shelter. I just remember we did this each time when something rumbled and crashed near our house. Only after some time I started understand what is “near” and what is “far from” us.
To be continued…
