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Donbass Woman Who Had Her Home Blown Up by Ukrainian HIMARS: 'They Are Not Human’
Reporting on the crisis in Ukraine often focuses on “big picture” narratives and stories on statements made by politicians, arms deliveries, troop maneuvers, and battles. But behind it all are ordinary people who have been caught in the crossfire, and they also have stories to tell. This is one of them.
Sputnik’s own Wyatt Reed is in Donbass covering the situation on the ground in the besieged Russian territory, which in the past seven months has faced shelling attacks and fighting of a scale and intensity unseen since the beginning of the conflict in 2014.
In Rubezhnoye, a small city in the Lugansk People’s Republic near the front line which has taken heavy damage in fighting, Sputnik's correspondents met Natalia Petrovna, a local pensioner. Her home took heavy damage in a Ukrainian artillery attack using what appears to be a US-supplied HIMARS missile, leaving her injured.
“Who [caused] these craters?” Sputnik asked the 68-year-old as she sat on a bench outside her ruined nine-story apartment bloc. “Those cursed fascists,” she answered. “Were you here when they fired?” we asked. “Yes, I live here on the first floor,” the woman said.
“They are beasts, they are beasts. They are not human. They have nothing human in them,” she added, describing the Ukrainian forces who destroyed her home.
“What was it like when they landed?” Sputnik inquired. Tearing up, Natalia Petrovna explained that she suffered an injury to her leg from a huge blast, and that she is now the only person left living in her section of the apartment building.
“What’s so upsetting? Is it the rockets that are upsetting?” the correspondent pressed, with the low, rumbling sound of artillery fire heard somewhere in the distance. “Yes,” the woman answered. “I was left alone here. There is no one to help me.”
Natalia Petrovna said she had nowhere to go, and no money to buy anything because she’s lost her passport, which means she can’t receive her pension.
The Sputnik correspondents promised to help, and got in touch with a local volunteer group, who jotted down the pensioner’s information and address.
‘Guys, You Can’t Do This’
“We help ordinary people with a minimal basket of goods that can save a person’s life during this difficult time,” a burly 40-something-year old volunteer in a bright red cap with a medical cross on it told Sputnik as the correspondents traveled to Natalia Petrovna’s home after buying some food.
“What do you think of the Ukrainians threatening people who take humanitarian aid?” Sputnik asked the man. “We heard about that, yes, we’ve even seen video from Kiev where people were put in trenches and shot in the back,” the man said. “There are nationalist battalions which do this, yes. Guys, you can’t do this. We’re all people – Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians,” the volunteer said, shaking his head.
Upon arriving at Natalia Petrovna’s apartment, the volunteer asked if she could find a birth certificate, a passport, pension papers – any ID that could help volunteers register her for assistance.
Volunteer speaks to Wyatt Reed and his translator as they head to Natalia Petrovna's home to bring her some food supplies.
© Photo : Wyatt Reed
Could You Imagine This is How You Would Be in 40 Years?
Getting to know the woman, Sputnik found out that she is a mother of three –two sons and a daughter. One son died in a mining accident, she doesn’t know where the other is, and her daughter lives somewhere in Kiev, she thinks. Natalia Petrovna has no way of contacting her daughter and doesn’t know where she is. The pensioner’s husband died a long time ago. Natalia used to work as a postwoman, but now has difficulty walking.
Asked why she chooses to stay in her heavily damaged apartment – whose windows have been blown out and doors knocked down, instead of going to stay in a hostel, Natalia Petrovna fears that if she leaves, whatever little she has left will be stolen by marauders. She recalled that one time, Ukrainian soldiers went into her home and took some clothing.
Damage to Natalia Petrovna's home following Ukrainian artillery strike.
© Sputnik / Wyatt Reed
“What would you say to the Americans who’ve blown up your home?” Sputnik asked toward the close of the conversation, referring to the US-supplied weaponry being delivered to Kiev. “That they’re beasts, that’s it. They have no heart,” the woman said.
Pointing to an old, faded portrait of Natalia Petrovna as a young woman hanging on the wall of her flat, Sputnik asked if she could “imagine when that picture was taken if this is how she would be in 40 years.”
“No. No,” the woman said, tearing up again.
Re: WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia
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