On the anniversary of Russia's attack on Ukraine, former Dynamo Kyiv defender Vladyslav Vashchuk recalled how the first days of the war went for him.
Vladislav Vashchuk"A year ago I was in Gostomel. Around six in the morning, a friend called me and said that there were explosions in Boryspil and that we had to leave immediately. I got the kids up and started to pack, but we didn't have time to leave. The helicopters flew away.
Nine days later, I stood at the door of my garage and felt a cold sweat running down my back. I was typing a message to my son: "Don't come here! The Russians are here.", not realizing then that there was no connection and it would not reach the addressee.
During a break between shelling, the children ran to their mother's house on the neighboring street. I waited for them at the gate, occasionally wondering why it took so long.
I did not see the people in military uniforms right away. They were accompanied by a local resident. He was pointing at the houses, telling me who lived there - pensioners over there, a businessman over there, and this one over there... God knows whether he did it voluntarily or by force - the assault rifles in the hands of the soldiers could well have been an argument.
I remember how I quietly closed the gate and ran into the garage, realizing that I would not be able to close the front door behind me. I stood behind the gate, turning off the car engine because I was charging my phone.
"...- A football player lives here, he played for Dynamo..."
I heard them trying to pry the garage door open with something iron. The gate wouldn't give in - when we lost power on the fourth day, I put it on metal pins so that I could open it mechanically from the inside.
They were screaming and swearing, but the gate was standing still, not rising. I stood there, not breathing, and thought about only one thing - that the children would not come now. I realized that I had nothing to protect them with.
I heard them climbing over the fence. I thought that was it. I closed my eyes. I got ready. But they didn't come to me, they came to my neighbor. There were 18 people in the neighbor's basement. The people whose houses were bombed were walking down the street, knocking on all the doors to let them in, and he let them in. Only one house had a generator on the street - we all took water there and ran around during the breaks in the shelling.
Somehow we even got news from the neighboring streets, we knew that on March 5 a woman gave birth on the next street. We knew that Prylypko, the head of Gostomel, had been killed - a priest came to take the corpse away, and a Russian soldier stopped him, removed the tripwires and said, "Take it away.
At that moment, it didn't matter who you were or what you were-we were all on equal terms. No electricity. No gas. No water. No food. No idea when it would end.
- "Good afternoon, what are you doing here?" a neighbor came out.
- We came to ask you - what do you think of the new government?
- What's this got to do with it??? It's a normal government. What do you want? Why are you here?
- We came to free you!
- Where??? In my house??? You broke into my yard...
- I see. Do you and your family live here?
- Yes.
- All right, let's go. Let's go.
I could hear the neighbor closing the gate behind them and they walked away. I stood there and felt my wet sweatshirt sticking to my back. I did not feel cold. I leaned against the garage door, realizing that this time I had missed it
The children came in fifteen minutes. There were no more Russian soldiers on the street.
We left through the humanitarian corridor on March 10, and two days later
They drank with my portrait, turning my house into a barn at the same time. They were wiping their feet with a Ukrainian national team shirt - I found it later in the basement, where the second team was probably drinking).
I'm not going to describe everything - there's no need. And yes, they did unscrew that sacred washing machine in my house. They didn't take it out - they didn't have time, apparently. Or maybe it didn't fit in the APC, I don't know. But then the plumbers cursed for a long time, fixing it back, because the "liberators" had broken the threads.
A year has passed. Like everyone else, I dream of one thing - peace. A world where this will be impossible. Only a year has passed. And it seems to me that a whole life has passed. And I hardly remember the 24th of July. Too many things happened afterwards-losses, tears, despair, and fatigue. But there was also joy, which I had never experienced before in my life, there was love and tears of happiness, there was a feeling that we were all united.
Everything will be Ukraine. I know for sure.
May the memory of those who died be blessed.
I thank those who are now bringing our victory closer.
And - Glory to Ukraine!
P.S. The photo is of me in Gostomel, March 9," Vashchuk wrote on his Facebook page.
