UKRAINE : VOICES OF THE MURDERED KATERYNA SAVENKO'S DIARY!

UKRAINE: VOICES OF THE MURDERED KATERYNA SAVENKO’S DIARY!

Irina Mirochnik

VOICES OF THE MURDERED KATERYNA SAVENKO’S DIARY

I died with her.

After the note.

Every word there is like a shot.

As if a million years had passed on this earth from the beginning of her diary to this piece of paper.

The first word is “Mum” and the last is “Help”.

UKRAINE : VOICES OF THE MURDERED KATERYNA SAVENKO'S DIARY!

There is so much pain and hopelessness between them that there is not enough air.

“The doctors have all left”.

This means that she is without help, in pain and almost without hope.

I understand how she wrote her diary.

Many people were writing then.

They wanted to tell about what was happening in the city, how unbearable life had become, how scary it was when people were being killed and there was nowhere to hide, and how they still wanted to survive.

I cannot understand how she had the strength to write that little note.

All the time I think that the injury is this wild pain and shock. And also loneliness. You feel lonely even if there are people around to help you, but there is only pain – physical and mental.

“Vitalik is dead.”

She has changed from this pain and writes in a completely different way.

I don’t recognise her letters.

They have become sharp and hard. Т

he same as the life she lived in in April 2022.

How good it is that Katina’s notes have been preserved.

That her loved ones have kept this note, which makes my eyes dark.

I am talking to her now in my mind.

And I listen to her voice.

And it seems to me that she is here.

And those who killed her are long gone.

Read Kateryna’s diary from Mariupol.

And tell others.

And let her story continue to be told.

Link to the diary left in the comments

This text was written by Nadia Sukhorukova

Also on the page @NatalyaDedova

On 28 March, Katia, her daughter Nadia and her husband Vitaliy go to see their mother on Myrnyi Street.

For the first time in a month.

And for the last time.

The woman asked them to stay.

But the family wanted to go home.

And they returned.

Katia wrote about this today, two years ago.

Tomorrow, 29 March 2022, Vitalik will die.

Right away.

Katia will be dying for six more days.

On 1 or 2 April, she will write this last note.

Some stranger will hand the note to Katia’s mother.

To Myrnyi Street.

And the mother and Vitaliy’s mother will go looking for them.

They will find Katia already outside the hospital.

She will jump out.

When the fire starts.

And then she will die for two more days.

Vitalik’s body will be pulled apart by dogs.

Mothers will bury their children three times.

#MariupolVoicesOfTheDead

VOICES OF THE MURDERED KATERYNA SAVENKO’S DIARY

Kateryna Savenko died on 4 April. Her husband Vitaliy died on 29 March. It was then that their house was shelled. The couple received fatal injuries. Kateryna kept a diary until 29 March. We are reading it now. In our voices.

***

Day thirty-four: 29 March 2022, Tuesday

I’ve been sleeping in the apartment on my daughter’s bed for days now, my knees hurt a lot, and in the evening they just twist with unbearable pain.

The shooting does not end for a moment. Even the bullets are flying over our heads in the yard. If we had seen all this in the early days, we would probably all have died of a broken heart.

We want to go to Nika’s to see how she is doing. We need to bring home some water from their house, rainwater.

Today I washed the floor, heated water from Sasha’s barrel and washed myself thoroughly, from head to toe.

Sveta Zavodina’s nephew is a firefighter. He allowed us to take two buckets of water from the fire station. Thank you, lad!

A couple from the village of Myrne passes by, trying to find humanitarian food because they have four children and nothing to eat. I asked them what their street was and told them Oksana’s street. They say it’s relatively calm.

***

The diary comes to an end here.

There is an explosion in the yard. Vitalii is the first to run. What if there is a fire? Katia follows him. And at that moment, there is a second explosion.

Vitalii died instantly. Katya was seriously injured.

She and her daughter will be hiding in the basement for a day. On 30 March, she will be transferred to Hospital #1. Katya is on the 2nd floor. Nadia is in the basement. The daughter will go up to her mother. To give her water. To give her injections. The doctors are gone.

With her surviving right hand, Katia will write on her phone, asking her daughter to save the diaries.

On 2 April, the hospital caught fire due to shelling. Katya will have fractures of the hip, shoulder and jaw. And she will start to burn. Together with the hospital. But she will be able to jump from the 2nd floor. And fall under the windows of the department. That’s where her mother and in-laws will find her.

On 1 or 2 April, Katia will write a note to her mother.

“Mum!

I am wounded.

I’m in hospital #1.

The doctors have all left.

My leg is broken and my face is torn.

Vitalik is dead.

Nadia is in the hospital basement. Help!

This note will be handed over to my mother in the village of Myrnyi by a stranger.

Two mothers – Katya and Vitaliy – will go to the hospital. But they will find the girl when they have lost all hope and are returning home. Katia will be lying under a chequered bag. And the mother will see her daughter by chance.

Katia will die in her mother’s arms on 4 April. In the basement of the house.

The women will bury their children, Katia and Vitalii, three times.

Now the Savenko family has found their eternal rest at the Starokrymske cemetery.

Katia is 42 forever. Vitaliy is 47.

Daughter Nadiya and mother survived. All the neighbours also survived.

Two notebooks of the diary were taken by Lyudmyla Petrivna, Katia Savenko’s mother.

***

There are no more words, no more tears… For what?

Share with the hashtag

#MariupolVoicesOfTheDead

The entire diary is available here in the link:

https://civilvoicesmuseum.org/stories/golosi-vbitih-shodennik-vijni-katerini-savenko-z-mariupolya?fbclid=IwAR3iD6_5JTGGp9Nv9G6NnkdUG85CMha1zYuOKjjKrP_DYiLAPA1PnpO9xUA_aem_AdvNUOQfPJuAI4u7ZbDUppOwITFo_Z8ZVwb-BGOoyi2BCdS0englktvFlmd4Ts3a0HuQecIwzJVsbl8wpOfIK7pX

30-03-2024

[Writer Irina Mirochnik is the President at IMMER Group & Doctor of Philosophy in Law(PhD)]

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