by Giusi Fasano
The Story of the Woman Who Run Away: ‘You Have No Idea What They Did’
FROM OUR REPORT LEOPOLI «There was a cold that I cannot describe. We felt the cold in our hearts. We put our anoraks against the broken windows to try to keep the air out, but I was still shivering, and at a certain point I didn’t know if I was shivering from cold or fear ». Daria Gorodnichaya, 28, speaks of a different Ukraine. It can’t be that his Mariupol is in the same country as this quiet square in front of Lviv’s main train station. He lets himself be warmed by the warm early afternoon sun and thinks back to that disfigured, unrecognizable city. “You have no idea what they did…”. Daria and Angelina, their fiveyearold daughter, arrived by train with Miky, the family dog. They are from the days of the barbaric siege of Mariupol, which they spent in the basement of the palace where they lived. No electricity, no connection, nothing to keep warm, food and water rationed. It is dark. A darkness that let through a few rays of light during the day but was dense in the evening and at night, multiplied fears and sounds.
How many were you down there?
«In 170. At first we went under when the sirens wailed, but it got worse and worse. From March 2nd, the phone lines and electricity went out, we were practically always standing like rats in the cold and could not communicate with the world ».
food and water?
“We got some in the days before the total catastrophe, we rationed everything. Now there is no water in the city».
How did you manage to defend yourself against the cold?
“Apart from the jackets on the holes in the windows, we were dunked in blankets. Look here “. Show the photo of two Sphynx cats (the hairless ones) with two kittens, all dead: “The cold killed them, I couldn’t save them.”
Why did you decide to go under the bombs?
“We haven’t decided. On the evening of March 16, Russian soldiers arrived at the bunker. We were petrified, nobody said a word. They wanted us out of there. Someone answered: It’s already evening, where are we going at this time? So they left us alone. But they came back the next morning and ordered us to leave.
what did they say
“That they were good, that they came to free us. We had deleted from their phones any photos that might make them angry because we knew they look at the phones a lot. Someone was asked to strip to make sure they didn’t have Nazi tattoos. A soldier saw these symbols (shows his left hand, editor’s note) and yelled at me: What are these? I told him it has nothing to do with National Socialism, it’s just a drawing I like… He let me go. The plane alarm rings out on the station square. The little girl, in tears, runs straight to her mother.
Is she always so afraid of sirens?
“Yeah, she always does, she’s scared. This sound is frightening for us adults, let alone children … Here now is only the remote possibility of an attack, but until a few days ago in Mariupol a siren was the announcement of bombs, of collapsing buildings, of dead and wounded .. It is fear that paralyzes ».
Did someone from your family die in Mariupol?
Daria’s eyes fill with tears. “My mother,” he replies. “She died a few blocks from me and I couldn’t even see her. Say hello one last time.
you were isolated How do you know for sure she’s dead?
“When the Russians sent us away from the bunker, we went to the nearest village, about twenty kilometers from Mariupol. That’s where I found a person Mom knew. He told me they buried her in a mass grave. I just think how lonely and scared she must have felt.”
How did he leave the village?
“The Russian soldiers wanted us to get on buses to Russia. We declined. I wouldn’t have gone to Russia even dead. I found a ride by car for a while, by bus a little further, then by train all the way here ».
Where is she going now?
“In Poland, where my husband lives and works. He wanted to come and get us, but it was too dangerous. He could not help but wait and pray ».
The worst day?
“Every day seemed the worst, but the next was even worse”
Do you think he will return to Mariupol?
“I don’t know if I’ll come back to live there. Surely I will come back to put a cross and a name where my mother is buried, it hurts me too much to think of her down there ».
March 22, 2022 (change March 22, 2022 | 23:26)
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