The real war story from the eyes of the Donbass refugee in 2014
I was eating my tuna salad and watching some stupid TV show, all comfortable in my bed when the siren suddenly started to buzz. “What’s going on? Fire drill? Again? Well, it was just last week. No, wait. A drill at 10 pm? Nonsense”. Annoyed I got up, put my hoody on, and went downstairs. Most of the students usually leave the city during summer, and only a few working ones like me stay in the dorm during that period. Our dorm complex consisted of 6 huge buildings and a wide territory, so I was not surprised that I haven’t met anybody in the hallway or in the lobby. “What is it? Why is the siren buzzing? “- I asked the janitor. She looked at me and all of a sudden I wished I never asked. Her eyes were full of fear and she shouted, “It’s war, my child! WAR! Pack your bags and RUN! You don’t live here anymore! “.
“Pack your bags and run…War”. Her words didn’t make any sense to me. I slowly went upstairs to my room and froze. Thousands of thoughts were flying through my head, but the sound of the siren didn’t let me focus. My hand reached for the phone and I dialed my mom, but couldn’t utter a word, so I hung up. No one could help now. All people I know were thousands of miles away from me. In this city, there was no one who could help. Nobody at all. I am alone. In haste, I began throwing random items off the shelves in my small red suitcase, not even looking at them. “Money and passport” — the first sober thought came to my mind. I collected all the documents and looked around the room. It was super cozy and girly. It was light pink color, with many photos and garlands on the walls. Big teddy bear on the bed, which I got as a gift from my high school bestie, wardrobe full of clothes and shoes, of course. Everything I own will be left here.
My thoughts were interrupted by the loud noise coming from the hall. Dorm suddenly ceased to be empty. Stamping of feet and men’s voices broke the silence. I went out into the corridor and met my neighbor, who was bringing out his trunks. He saw my frightened face and said in a very calm manner: “Get ready, russians are coming.” I would have never thought that this sentence could so be terrifying. “Russians” — this word suddenly changed its value. It switched really quickly from our brethren to occupants. To enemies.
I returned to my room, took my suitcase, and started running towards the exit, where I saw an image that led me to an even greater shock. A huge crowd of dirty, aggressive men occupied the entire hall. They were shouting and laughing, carrying crates of vodka and waving their guns. “Sweetheart, where are you going? Oh, you look like you’re going to cry, baby. Stay here, with us, we promise you a lot of fun! “- turned one of them, pointing his AK47 at me. I’ve never felt so petrified in my entire life. I just stood there, without a possibility to move, looking at these numskulls, with prison tattoos all over their arms, mouths with missing teeth, shaved heads, and hungry, very hungry for lust eyes. “That’s it. I am going to get raped” — was my clear thought.
“Why are you so black?”- now they also saw my African neighbor next to me. The poor guy just stood there shaken and didn’t know what to say. We were lucky, because their attention suddenly diverted to their “girlfriend”, drunk as a skunk and swinging a frying pan over their heads. She started yelling at them over something, and while they were getting in a fight, we quickly ran outside. And I didn’t expect to see that. There were thousands of them. Thousands of military men occupied the entire street. Panzers and APCs were driving towards the dorm from all directions. “This is war”. All of a sudden it dawned on me. For some reason, I didn’t want to believe in it when russians seized Sloviansk. I didn’t believe it even when I could hear bombarding of the nearby towns. I didn’t believe it when this morning I saw a gelentweigen full of Chechens with machine guns driving around the city center and yelling that they will rule over us soon. I denied it until this army was there, right in front of me in all its glory.
I took the suitcase and started running away. Somebody was shouting something after me, but I didn’t even turn around. I was running until the noize of the soldiery started to fade away and the streets were getting empty. Finally, I saw a cab and jumped right into it. “Girl, what are you doing? There are panzers all over the city, I am not going anywhere” .“Please just take me out of here.” — I said. The driver looked at me and sighing heavily turned the car on and drove me to the bus station. At 6 am I took the first bus out of the city, left Donetsk and never came back.
