Until February 23, Mykola worked with his son as a handyman repairing apartments. On February 24, he woke up, not understanding what was going on. He heard some kind of explosions or thunder.
Suddenly, the first missiles flew at military facilities. The Russians hit the Kharkiv tank school, struck the cadet corps, and destroyed the market. Then their bombs hit a residential building and damaged a supermarket. The Russians also destroyed a building of the city's detention center. Mykola does not know how many inmates were there.
Then more powerful bombing began. Mykola said that the Russian military bombarded the city in a way that it is hard to describe. "I don't remember what date, at ten in the morning I talked to my son on the phone. I heard fighter jets buzzing over the house. I shout: "Son, they are bombing us!"
A missile passed almost over the house and aimed at homes near the railway station. The explosion was so powerful that Mykola's house shook. Black smoke was visible on the street, and ash descended into Mykola's yard.
One day, Mykola recalls, an aerial bomb landed on the city's central square. There was a volunteer tent, and the bomb hit it. "And what's left of Saltivka... The Russians destroyed almost an entire neighborhood."
"A lot of people died. One girl was walking with blood on her leg. People were standing in line for food, and a shell hit nearby. The old lady's leg was torn off, and blood splattered on the girl. The girl was shocked. She was 15-16 years old," - Mykola recalled.
The regions of Oleksiivka and Pyatikhatki suffered a great deal. There are no military facilities there, only residential buildings. Mykola said that before the war, there were good roads in Kharkiv, and Gorky Park was like Disneyland. "Everything that could be destroyed was destroyed."
Mykola has a cousin who lives in Arkhangelsk, Russia. She told him that he is a Banderite, that Bandera's people killed her grandfather. Mykola asked: "Have you ever met these Bandera people? Do you even understand who Bandera is? The man has been gone for many years, and you are still afraid of him. You are crazy over there!"
But it was useless to try to prove anything to her, as many Russians are brainwashed. Mykola doesn't speak to his cousin anymore. "I really want everything they (the Russians) have done to be returned to them. And I don't want anything else."
This material was created on the basis of testimonies collected by the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group.
