A resident of Ukrainian Bakhmut almost miraculously managed to escape from the city, which is under Russian fire 24 hours a day.
Bakhmut/ photo: Vchasno
Serhii, a resident of Bakhmut, was sure from the start of the full-scale invasion: he would not leave the city, no matter what. However, when in recent months the Russians began to destroy residential buildings and bury civilians under rubble, he realized that staying meant guaranteed death. He managed to escape.
Serhii is currently in Kostyantynivka. He tells «Vchasno» journalists: he was born in Bakhmut, so he wanted to stay in his native city until the end. However, the confidence that the decision was right disappeared daily — with each hit of a Russian shell on the city… or people.
«To describe in one word, today is hell in the city. There is no water, there is no light — we have completely forgotten what it is. There are no shops, nothing at all. And every day they bomb, bomb, and bomb us. Mines fly and fly… And everything burns, constantly. There is no such day or hour without it. But we kept expecting that Ukraine would push them (Russians) back. And when we saw orcs (sometimes Ukrainians call their invaders „orcs“) already occupied that part of the city — that’s all, it became clear that we had to go. My friends who lived across the Bakhmutka River were taken away under convoy by the Russians. And it happened not at their will — they did not want to go anywhere. They, like us, were waiting in the basements for Ukraine to push back the Russians. And then the orcs came in and took them out. Whether you want it or not, they won’t be here. So now those guys are in Rostov or somewhere there…» the resident of Bakhmut says.
A resident of Bakhmut who was forced to leave the city because of Russian shelling / photo: Vchasno
Bakhmut/ photo: Vchasno
Bakhmut/ photo: Vchasno
Serhii and his brother had been living in the basement of the building since the summer, when he realized that he had more chances to survive there than in his apartment on the second floor. The projectiles that the Russians drop on houses «tear off» not only the roofs but also at least two floors.
«The apartment on the second floor is dangerous. It survived, but half the house burned down, and the roof and everything else was broken. There are no windows or glass. My brother and I somehow wintered — because there was a stove (also called „burzhuyka“). We lived in the basement — it was 5 °C, sometimes 6−7°C. The warmest temperature in the basement was 9°, and above that, the numbers did not rise. The stove remained in the apartment. Therefore, we slept like this — not in the cold, but dressed, wrapped in everything that was in the apartment, so as not to freeze to death. And since February, it is not the same as living in Bakhmut — it is impossible to survive there. It’s gotten warmer, yes, but the Russians don’t even let you go outside from the basement,» the man says.
There was always plenty of food, Serhii says, including fresh bread, and humanitarian aid. When the brothers left their basement, boxes of food remained in it, because they did not manage to eat everything. The main reason for leaving was the fear of repeating the fate of acquaintances from the other side of the city and the desire to live.
«The center of the city is no longer there — it either burned down or was destroyed by these bombs, which are constantly going off. And they bomb around the clock, there is no such thing as silence for even a few hours. You are sitting in the basement and you hear: «boom», «boom» — sometimes very close, then somewhere further away, then again above you. There are no more areas that have not been fired at — nothing is left. It’s been this way since the summer — constantly. A man was repairing a car in my yard — the shell hit and killed him. His body was taken away by the funeral service on February 14. And the polyclinic was working — there was one doctor for everyone. But I didn’t go there — during the winter, even under the conditions in which we lived, there was no cough, no fever — nothing. And as of now, whether something is working or not — it’s unlikely, but I don’t know for sure…
On March 6, a Russian aircraft flew over and dropped a bomb, so that building near us now has no 5th, 4th, or 3rd floor. The house «shattered» so much that in all the houses nearby, where there was still glass, the windows flew out," Serhii says.
The man’s neighbors had long since left the city, so he lived in the basement of the entire house, just the two of him and his brother.
Bakhmut/ photo: Vchasno
Serhiy tells «Vchasno» journalists: all this time, since the problems with the gas supply began in the spring, food was cooked on the stove — until the New Year, because then it was calmer. And after February 2023, when the Russians began to raze Bakhmut to the ground, it was scary to leave the basement — because Russian terrorists targeted specifically everything that moves.
«Fortunately, there were kerosene lamps in the basements, so we searched for them and lived like that. It was the light for us. We cooked something to eat on the fire, when it was still possible to go out. But that’s before the New Year. And even in autumn and winter there were two shops per town, so it was possible to go there and buy something — three times more expensive than in any other nearby town. But there was really a lot of food and we only bought a sausage, chocolate, and other tasty things in stores. We had a lot of ordinary food.
And after February, it became dangerous to go out to get water, and it is nowhere to be found. You go out into the street — they shoot at you! So people sit in basements and don’t go out anywhere. If before dogs and cats still ran around, now they are not even there anymore, and the city is dead.
There is also no water anywhere. There used to be a well in the center of Bakhmut, but I don’t know what kind of water was there. But people went to the well. And now it’s impossible — they will kill you. My brother and I used to go through the basements and look for water bottles. After all, when the invasion started, people brought bottles to the basements to have something to drink and left them after that. So my brother and I were taking them to our cellar — a liter, two at a time. And I worked in a restaurant, there was a water tank — I also brought water to the basement from it. And where other people take the water now — I don’t know," the resident of Bakhmut tells.
Bakhmut/ photo: Vchasno
Since 2014, Serhii shares, everything has been quiet in the city. Bakhmut was not crushed and shells did not fall on people’s heads — that is why the locals maintained a neutral attitude towards Russia and Putin for a long time. However, on the morning of February 24, 2022, all his acquaintances with such a position changed their minds and said, almost for the first time, that Putin is a murderer.
«From 2014, sometimes remnants of shelling were heard, but without shells hit, without anything. I understand Ukraine’s position that everyone has started to switch to Ukrainian — both for language and for communication. My wife started teaching mathematics in Ukrainian… A lot changed then, but we got used to it, and everything was calm. Until these „liberators“ came and started killing people. And people see what the orcs did to Bakhmut and Mariupol. What beautiful cities were and what became of them… Russia is the fascists. When they (Russinas) were still somewhere far away, people even perceived it differently. And when people saw how they were bombing us, „liberating“ us, they did not wait for them at all, they did not want any „liberation“. They are horrified to think that orcs can get to them,» Serhii says.
Now the man, having collected three bags of things for two with his brother, admits: he does not know what to do next. The plan is to come to his wife, and then to hold on until victory in order to return to the city when the Russians leave it. He hopes that their apartment will survive — although he does not believe in it too much.
«Now I will go to Kramatorsk to visit my wife in the Kirovohrad oblast, but I will not stay in Donetsk oblast — there is nothing to do here, I have to leave where it is safer. We hope that the devil Putin will be stopped here, but still there is a fear that he may go even further — because they shell this city too, and Kostyantynivka has been fired at… But if our guys push the orcs back, then we will return. My brother and I and my wife. We were born and baptized here, so where else should we be?
I didn’t take home slippers with me on the road — because I don’t have a home. So for now, let them wait for me at home, God willing, they will," the man says.
Author: Alina Yevych