Ivan rescued a woman under attack: "She died in my arms"

Taking cover with 600 others in a school basement

70-year-old Ivan lives in a one-room apartment in the village of Kriukivshchyna near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. He lives in the same building as his daughter Anastasiia, who helps him cope with everyday life.

Ivan has a hearing impairment and severe pain in his left leg due to shrapnel. But he is alive. In late 2022, he fled his hometown of Vuhledar, which is close to the front line. For nine months, he had survived massive attacks on the town in a basement, where he lived with more than 600 other men, women and children.

Ivan recalls his time in the basement, which was located under a school that was increasingly being destroyed by the war.

"The conditions were terrible. On rainy days, water would pour in and at night mice would run over me. But I lived there because my apartment was close by and at that time it wasn't completely destroyed yet. I could visit my home when there was a break in the shelling," he remembers.

There was no electricity or kitchen facilities in the school basement, so the hundreds of residents taking refuge against the constant attacks could only get electricity from a generator and chop wood to cook over an open fire.

"She died in my arms"

Sometimes it was necessary to leave the basement to go out for supplies, and Ivan was often one of those who volunteered to take the risk so that the many families could get vital food and fuel. But one day, things went wrong.

"I was with some roommates on my way home from the grocery store when the shelling started," Ivan remembers.

The small group tried to take cover, but a mortar shell landed right in their midst. Ivan's eardrums burst and his left leg was hit by shrapnel.

"I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I saw that my neighbors - a man and a woman who lived with me in the basement - were also injured. The attack continued, so we rushed to the nearest building where we took shelter. We also carried an injured woman there, but she died in my arms."

Neighbor's home transformed into an abyss

To receive treatment for his severe injuries, Ivan was admitted to a nearby hospital. After three weeks, his condition stabilized and he was able to start walking on crutches. He decided to go to the village of Kriukivshchyna in the Kyiv region, where his daughter Anastasiia lives.

"Living in a school basement on crutches would be incredibly difficult," Ivan explains about the tough decision to leave his hometown of many years.

Before he left, he visited his apartment. It was now almost destroyed - a grenade had hit the neighbor's home, turning it into an abyss. Ivan took all the personal and essential belongings he could carry and closed the door to his home for the last time.

Since then, the last vestiges of familiarity have been destroyed in multiple attacks. "I recently saw pictures of my old apartment building and saw that the walls of my apartment were completely black from fire damage. I guess the whole the whole city is destroyed now."

No money for hearing aids and leg braces

Ivan has lost not only his apartment, but also his summer house and his car to the violence of war. He has nothing of value left and is living off his state pension, which he received after 29 years as a coal miner.

So money is tight for Ivan, who, in addition to rent, food and basic necessities, also deals with high medication costs for an old lung injury, the new hearing loss, and pain medication for his left leg, which still has shrapnel in it that the surgeons at the hospital could not remove.

When Ivan realized that he needed to get a hearing aid to avoid losing his hearing, he remembered that a few months earlier he had received a call from a Danish Refugee Council employee who had told him about the possibilities of getting help.

"Ivan contacted us, and when we talked to him, it became clear that in addition to a hearing aid, he also needed support with his medication, a leg brace and a pair of orthopaedic insoles. So we helped him with that," says Dmytro, who is part of our dedicated team of specialists providing support to victims of war.

Thousands of war-torn cities along the frontline

Ivan's leg injury still hurts from the shrapnel and it's too painful to take long walks. But thanks to his new assistive devices, the right medication, and good support from his daughter, he's doing well.

He is still in contact with some of the volunteers providing support in his hometown of Vuhledar. According to them, many have fled as he did, but there are still around 70 people living in the old school basement.

When asked if he could imagine returning to his hometown, he replies: "Of course! I would like to go home. If it was possible, I would go back and rebuild my home, but unfortunately it's not."

There are thousands of towns and cities along the front line that, like Ivan's hometown, are now in an active war zone. Due to the sheer size of the conflict zone, an estimated 10.6 million Ukrainians within the country's borders are in need of humanitarian and demining assistance.

With an already significant presence, DRC is currently expanding our efforts throughout Ukraine. Among other things, we carry out demining and mine risk education, and we provide support to victims of the war so that more people like Ivan can get help to both prevent and live with serious war injuries.