It is very difficult to describe this hell – Mykola Osychenko
Host
Anastasia Bagalika
Guests
Mykola Osychenko
The guest is Mykola Osychenko, the head of the television and radio organization “Mariupol Television.” He managed to evacuate from Mariupol with his family on March 15.
Mykola Osychenko: We managed to leave Mariupol. We are currently in Zaporizhia. We were greeted very warmly, settled, fed. Thank you very much to the volunteers for your work. For people who spent 14 days in hell, such an acceptance brought us to tears. It’s true!
There is nothing in Mariupol right now: no heating, electricity, water supply, gas, food, communications, or water. Trekking for water could end in death each time. I know a story of a woman who was walking with two big bottles of water, the shelling started, she ran to the front door, and the door was closed. She blew up into pieces. There are many such stories. It’s very scary.
When we left Mariupol, we saw the bodies of civilians on the streets. They are not removed because there is no place to put them and no one to do it. Neighbors bury neighbors in backyards. Half a meter deep, so that dogs can’t dig them up. Because dogs are also hungry. Many abandoned animals run the streets in search of food.
Almost all of the houses don’t have glass. The temperature in the houses is almost the same as outside. And outside the temperature is in the minuses. People are warming up in basements. However much they can heat with their breath, that’s the heat they have. It turns out to be around +5. Young children, retirees. Without medication, insulin, without anything. We do not know yet how many people of old age died quietly at home.
The worst thing I felt during this time was the inability to protect my child. When the plane rumbles over the house (and you already know that the sound of the plane ends with a missile strike), and there is nothing you can do. Just cover the baby with your body. But I knew I would not save their life. It’s just a psychological gesture that will not give anything. This is extremely scary.
There was no free distribution of food. We did not receive humanitarian aid. Maybe, it could not reach us. Initially, there were grocery stores that worked. But some were bombed, others were looted. There is nothing now.
For more than a now week, no one has been putting out fires. There is no one. The SES no longer exists in Mariupol. If a rocket or a projectile hits the house, that’s it. Until it burns out, it will not go out.
All those who have left are relieved and happy on the one hand, and on the other hand, they feel unspeakable pain and guilt, because there are still hundreds of thousands of peaceful, innocent people left. We don’t know if they will be able to get out. Even those residents who managed to save their cars and gasoline, it does not mean that they will be able to take advantage of this.
It is very difficult to describe this hell. The city is being wiped off the face of the earth with its civilians and its inhabitants. Those who do not come under fire die of hunger and cold.
Listen to the entire program in the audio file.