Interview: Natalija Yefimkina
“My name is Sasnovskiy Alexander, I am 39 years old, born in 82 and I live all my life in Mariupol with my wife, no, I lived in Mariupol.
We wrote grant projects and did youth work in Mariupol.
We consulted and decided to stay here in Mariupol as long as possible. Because we have an active pro-Ukrainian position. My wife is from Donetsk and we were here in 2014, my wife moved to Mariupol in 2015, so we knew the artillery shelling. We thought we were experienced people and that’s why we didn’t want to leave because of shelling. Because if everyone leaves, who will stay here and do what?
The resolutions were getting louder and louder and they were getting closer and closer and suddenly there was no more light in the city and therefore no more heating.
That is, there was no light, you couldn’t heat and there was no cell phone connection.
That is, they deliberately executed their plan to destroy the infrastructure of the city so that there would be no electricity, no reception, so that it would become more and more difficult to stay there.
The last thing we did there is that we baked bread at night for the people and the army, because there is no electricity, the city became a forest.
Staying in the city became more and more dangerous and we decided to leave the city, leaving the city was also dangerous, as my mom said, from two suicides the slow one and the fast one we decided for the fast one.
And after 5 km I saw the Russian column, with infantry fighting vehicles, Kamaz vehicles, infantry was sitting on it and it was long, 20 units I saw. What should we do? The column was also next to the road, they drove into the field and then back onto the road, they have a certain system of movement, they drive in serpentine lines. What to do? We stopped. And I see a tank turn around and aim at us.
And I think that’s it, he’s going to shoot at us and then drive on. But he didn’t. We were standing there and then I saw a gap between two armored personnel carriers and I drove the car into that hole, through there, through the column and we got through.
My house is completely destroyed, completely destroyed is my life, I have no contact with my relatives and people close to me and I don’t know if they are alive. And I left my cats there because I thought we are gone for a short time and we will be right back.
It’s a dilemma, you want your relatives to survive and stop suffering as soon as possible, but you understand that if they stop, then it can get worse for everyone else.
Fuck this is the echo of war.
I wake up in the morning, open my eyes and think I’m home, and then I understand that yes, I don’t have a home anymore.”