Oleksandra Syniakovska
Ukrainian IP Agent
“I woke up around 5 am from the sound of a cannonade of explosions, my body started to tremble…”
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My name is Oleksandra Syniakovska and I am Ukrainian IP agent. I have been living in Kharkiv most of my conscious life and love this one of the most green, beautiful, cosy and developed cities in Ukraine, which I always recommended to visit as a “must-see” to all my IP friends. I am proud of Kharkiv as equal as I am proud of Ukraine and of being Ukrainian…
The evening of 23rd of February was tense, I felt an inexplicable fear which I could not explain. On 24th of February, I woke up around 5 am from the sound of a cannonade of explosions, my body started to tremble, and I immediately woke up my husband. We both went close to the window of our apartment in Saltovka district and saw orange glow and smoke in the sky while the window glasses were shaking. The moment later I called my parents who live in Novoaydar, Lugansk region of Ukraine – they know very well how artillery sounds because they live very close to the borders of the region occupied by Russians for 8 years (Russians call it Lugansk People’s Republic). My mother recommended not to panic and to prepare documents and necessities for leaving to a safer part of the city. It took us less than an hour to put most important belongings into the car, take our cat and move to another district of the city where my husband`s parents live, just to stay altogether.
The School where Oleksandra was hiding; windows blown out; a crater in the earth from a nearby missile attack.
Starting from that evening, we spent 9 days and nights in the school basement with about two hundred other people, going out home to wash and take food only between 6 and 8 am, the quietest time of a day. During those days, my husband drove a couple of times under bombardment to get humanitarian aid for all people hiding in the school … One day, my confidence left me, I couldn’t resist but crying and we decided to leave the city. We left early in the morning the next day and it took us 12 hours to get to the city of Dnipro and another 12 hours to reach the city of Cherkassy in the center of Ukraine, the distance which usually could be covered in 7-8 hours…. Since then, we have been living in Cherkassy, in a stranger’s house, who kindly offered us shelter. Only once my husband managed to go to our destroyed Kharkiv to get some of our clothes, and he saw the apocalypse with his own eyes just to conclude that we cannot return now….
Cooking Varenyky for refugees hiding in the local church
Unfortunately, several days after our departure to a quieter part of Ukraine, a missile hit the school yard where we had hidden. Nobody was killed but there is no glass in the windows. A week ago, another missile hit the roof of the residential building with our apartment. Miraculously, our apartment was not destroyed.
Oleksandra missing her home.
The most painful thing for me now is that my native town Novoaydar in Lugansk region got under occupation on the 2nd of March. Now, my parents and other relatives have no mobile connection, no Internet connection, and every day they are looking for a place to connect to the Internet just to tell me that they are ok. Every day they hear how the Russians bombard the neighboring city of Severodonetsk. They cannot evacuate because it is too dangerous – I personally know people who wanted to evacuate from Novoaydar to a non-occupied region but their bus was fired at by Russian troops and even after they came out and lifted hands up, Russian soldiers threw grenades in their side, and the frightened people ran through the fields until they were lucky to be caught by another bus and returned safe, but dirty and without belongings, back home….There were schoolchildren among them and they still cannot recover…
Russians ruined my normal, happy life in my beloved Kharkiv and disconnected me from my parents. Russians continue to rob my native town (they stole computers from the local school and all equipment from the local hospital!!). These days, I start my mornings not with a coffee but with reading horrible news, worrying about my parents and friends, and dreaming to see and hug all of them, while trying to live my daily life and work in-between frequent alarm sirens.
It might sound crazy, but now I hate thunderstorms - they scary me and all people who have experienced bombardment… And the worst is that my story is far from being impressive, there are thousands of Ukrainians who experienced much more terrible things.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions above are held and expressed by our volunteer storytellers alone. At Brand Action, we are grateful for our volunteers' bravery and willingness to share their experiences on our platform. With consent from our volunteers, some of the stories have been translated or edited for brevity. It is our goal to accurately communicate their messages so that you may understand their challenges and triumphs.
