Wounded from the first days of the Russian invasion, Tetiana Burak and her husband holed up for 44 days in a hospital in Mariupol, before managing to flee the martyr city besieged by the Russian army. Now hospitalized in Lviv, in the west of the country, the 57-year-old woman describes the horror she experienced, the death that threatened to take her away at every moment and the Kafkaesque discussions she had with Russian soldiers, persuaded to come and save the Ukrainians.
In a video interview with The duty From her hospital bed while her husband was undergoing surgery, the lady speaks with composure of the hell she has just extricated herself from. Words that freeze the blood. “Mariupol has become a huge cemetery,” she breathes. Graves can be seen in each garden adjoining the housing buildings. »
Crosses were hastily erected. Bodies strewn the streets of the city destroyed at 95%. Gutted buildings, charred army vehicles and burnt houses have taken away the beauty of the city that was home to nearly half a million people before the Russian invasion. “This is not war. It’s a massacre,” says Tetiana Burak indignantly. “Horror is everywhere. Nobody can imagine that. »
From the start of the Russian assault on February 24, Tetiana Burak and her husband had planned to leave the port city. “But our car broke down precisely that day,” she says, referring to “a sign of fate”. Their district having been hit in the early hours of the war, the woman and the man decided to take refuge with a friend who lives in another part of town.
“Our apartment was located at 11and floor of an apartment tower, she explains. We were afraid he was targeted by the Russians, who were looking for Ukrainian snipers on the upper floors. That’s why the Russians were bombing the apartment towers. »
On the way to this friend’s house on February 27, the car in which Tetiana Burak and her husband were riding was caught in Russian shelling and mortar fire. “We were all injured. Luckily, Ukrainian soldiers were stationed nearby. “They saved us,” said the English teacher, part of whose arm was pulverized. “We were all taken to the hospital where we could be operated on. »
For the next 44 days, the injured couple will remain in the Regional Intensive Care Hospital at the gates of Mariupol. “The district was intensely bombarded,” she reports. The Russians were trying to break through our defense and enter the city through this sector. And that’s what they managed to do in mid-March. »
Hidden in the basement
In their first days in the hospital, Tetiana Burak and her husband were treated in the trauma unit. “All the patients were placed in the corridors, because it was too dangerous to be in rooms with windows,” she says. When bombs exploded nearby, the windows shattered, as staff feared. “You can imagine how cold it was. There were people who were seriously injured. It was horrible. »
Over the days, the hospital was hit by several bombs. “All the patients were taken to the basement. My husband and I stayed underground for several weeks. Citizens of Mariupol also came to seek refuge in the building. Hundreds of people were hiding there. The further the siege progressed, the more food and water became scarce. “Some days, the nurses cooked themselves to feed the patients with what they found. But it was very little. Sometimes, for several days, we didn’t eat at all,” recalls Tetiana Burak.
Patients and other residents of Mariupol came out at times to try to find food or water in the city. An extremely dangerous quest. “One day, people went out to fetch water near a church next to the hospital, and several died. They were killed while trying to fetch a little water”, indignant the lady whose apartment has since been completely destroyed by Russian bombardments.
Kafkaesque talks
In mid-March, when Vladimir Putin’s troops broke Ukrainian resistance and entered Mariupol, Russian soldiers also broke through the hospital gates. “They took with them three Ukrainian soldiers who had been wounded from the start of the war. We never saw them again and we don’t know what happened to them. »
Russian soldiers were then stationed in the hospital. As the bombs rained outside, several patients spoke to them. “The Russians were repeating that they had come to free us. People asked them: “but of what?” They told us that the Ukrainian army had been making us suffer for eight years [en 2014, la Russie a annexé la Crimée, et des forces prorusses ont commencé l’occupation d’une partie du Donbass en prétextant que les russophones y étaient persécutés]. »
Elderly people have openly accused Russian soldiers of destroying their homes, their lives, their families, says Tetiana Burak. “The Russians replied that in a few months everything would be rebuilt. They didn’t seem at all repentant about killing children and destroying homes. They told us that every building they targeted housed Ukrainian soldiers. »
While the Russians occupied the regional hospital, several bodies of deceased patients were taken to Manhouch, a suburb of Mariupol, where a Russian field hospital was erected, says the survivor. “Russian soldiers said they had a mobile crematorium [pour brûler les corps des civils ukrainiens] the low. A thesis supported by the Ukrainian authorities.
The Russians replied that in a few months everything would be rebuilt. They didn’t seem at all repentant about killing children and destroying homes.
During these forty days spent in hell, the couple constantly thought about how to organize their escape. “It was a matter of survival. Otherwise, we were going to starve or we were going to be killed by Russian bombs or gunfire. On April 11, as the Russians blocked the entrances and exits to the besieged city, Tetiana Burak and her husband managed to travel along country roads to Nikolske, some 20 kilometers from Mariupol, where they believed that buses were evacuating Ukrainians to Berdiansk, then Zaporizhia, in territory controlled by the Ukrainian army.
“But there were only buses going to Donetsk [une ville sous occupation prorusse depuis 2014] and in Rostov-on-Don in Russia. They wouldn’t let people go to the territories controlled by Ukraine. Several Ukrainians – who had no other options to flee – agreed to go to Russian territory, reports Tetiana Burak. “They made this choice to save their lives and those of their children. »
But before taking that one-way ticket to Russia, Ukrainians must go through a screening process, during which their phones are scrutinized, as well as any ties they might have with the Ukrainian military and government. . Their fingerprints are also taken, says Tetiana Burak, who speaks of a process that can stretch over several weeks.
“People I’ve kept in touch with have gone through this process and are now living in refugee camps on Russian territory. They tell me that the Russians do not let them leave these camps,” she testifies.
Suffering after suffering
To avoid being in Russian territory, Tetiana Burak and her husband managed to retain the services of a private driver who drove them to Berdiansk. A second driver then took them to Zaporijjia. “Luckily we had money left,” she notes. From there, an evacuation train took them to Lviv, where they are currently receiving treatment in hospital. “My husband is currently having jaw surgery, and they put a metal plate in my arm to help him heal. »
This hospital stay also allows them to receive psychological care. “It’s very difficult to get through all that,” slips Tetiana Burak. Sometimes, in the middle of the day, we start crying. It is enough to remember a memory, to see a photo or to learn that a friend has died. »
Wounds that we do not see, but which are deep. “It is impossible to imagine this level of hatred, drops the lady with emotion. They murder us because we don’t want to live the way Putin wants us to live. A theater of horror which is still unfolding today in Mariupol and whose savagery we have not yet finished discovering. “The world needs to know what is going on. »