‘The front is a few hundred kilometres long. In Kramatorsk, you can hear it every day. Exploding bombs, wailing sirens, flashing explosions at night. This is what everyday life looks like in the city.
The destroyed cities and villages without electricity, gas and water.
I travel around the area with the help of people from the charity organisation Angels of Salvation. They deliver parcels with food for the needy every day. They take me with themselves. I try to help as much as I can.
When I am with them, I have an opportunity to reach the places where there was heavy fighting a short time ago. Places such as Lyman or Izyum. People survived a few months under Russian occupation here. Now their cities and villages are largely destroyed. They often lack electricity, gas and water. They need help before the war ends and the rebuilding of the country starts.
Przemyśl, Kyiv and then Kramatorsk. ‘Mothers saying goodbye to soldiers with tears’
I arrived in Kramatorsk by train from Wroclaw. The journey lasted three days. First from the capital of Lower Silesia to Przemyśl. Then from Przemyśl to Kyiv. The capital of Ukraine does not seem to be heavily destroyed. Only after reaching Bucha and Irpin, where Putin’s army murdered civilians, do we realise that a tragedy has recently took place here. Destroyed buildings, burnt blocks of flats, charred trees. This is the view we can often come across in villages near Kyiv.
On the next day in Kyiv, I get into a train going to Kramatorsk. I arrive at the Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi station at 6 a.m. Half an hour before the departure. Most of the passengers in the wagons are soldiers. They are going to the front. On the platforms, their weeping families – wives, mothers, children – are saying goodbye to them. A sad view. Nobody knows if they ever see each other again.
A soldier is taking a seat beside me. His name is Sasha. A grey-haired man of about 50, with a backpack under his knees. I try to make a conversation. At the beginning, he is not very willing to talk. He is concentrated. A beautiful woman was saying goodbye to him on the platform. She was crying. After an hour, the conversation unfolds. He says he completed training in Poland. Then he returned to Kyiv and was called up a few days ago. He does not know where he will be sent. He will learn upon arrival.
Sasha is one of the oldest soldiers. Most conscripts in the wagon are 20–25 years’ old. They have a different, youthful approach to life and war. They laugh. They make jokes. They believe they will quickly manage to defend the country and win the war. Tall soldiers with ‘Ukraine’ and ‘Estonia’ patches on their uniforms are standing out. They are members of an international legion fighting on the Ukrainian side.
‘Attention! An air-raid alert, run into a shelter!’
The train runs up to 160 km per hour. The farther towards the east, the slower it runs. Finally, it rolls onto the Kramatorsk station after seven hours. As soon as we get off the train, an air-raid alert is heard. Sirens wail. My phone displays a text message from the government: ‘Attention! An air-raid alert! Run into a shelter as fast as possible!’ I look around. Nobody is panicking. We calmly go towards the railway station. Things get more dangerous only when a plane approaches. It hovers over us. It makes noises. After a while, it flies away.
Teddy bears and dolls on the fence remind us of the tragedy of April 2022.
Beside the exit to the city, there is a small toy car and a black stone. There are teddy bears and dolls on the fence. It is a reminder of the tragic event. In April 2022, the Russian army dropped bombs on people escaping by trains here. A few dozen people were killed. Most of them were mothers with children.
Lost in thought, I pass by the monument. Sirens wail all the time. It is a beautiful hot summer. Soldiers with guns are going beside me. We can hear exploding bombs in the distance. I have reached my destination. I am in Kramatorsk. Next time I will tell you what the city looks like.’
