Chronicles of war : The story of a woman who saw the battles and the occupation of Mariupol from a hospital ward

On February 16 2022, Oksana Galchenko from Mariupol broke her leg. Then, she heard the terrible news about a full-scale war when she was in the hospital using crutches.

She shared her story of surviving the occupation, being unable to walk, and getting out from the almost demolished Mariupol.

Oksana was born in Mariupol in a creative family. Her entire childhood was spent in the Palace of Culture: she was engaged in dancing and attended a music school.

However, for education, she picked a more pragmatic method: the faculty of foreign economic activity. Genetics and true desires took their toll: she returned to the field of culture. After working for five years abroad, she returned home, where she started her dance school and became the deputy director of the City Palace of Culture "Seagull." 

Changes for Oksana began with the onset of 2022. In January, she resigned from her job.  After an 18-year work marathon, she wanted to take a breather, look around and choose which way to go next.

On February 16, life forced a stop. Oksana found herself at the Mariupol Regional Intensive Care Hospital after she broke her ankle. Two days before the invasion, she underwent surgery. And on the first day of the full-scale war, she stood on crutches. After all, they became her weapon, protection, and support.

"A nurse came into the ward and said that the morning was not good because the Russians invaded from the North, East, and South. In 2014-2015 we already had that war experience. We heard explosions and shots and saw flags of DNR ( Donestk People's Republic) on buildings. But on February 24, I couldn't imagine it would become a tragedy of that scale. 

We still had electricity, water, and the Internet. The local authorities assured us that everything was under control. Nobody said anything about evacuation," Oksana Galchenko recalled.

On February 25, most of the patients went home. Those who remained were moved to the corridor of the hospital. Oksana didn't leave because she needed medical treatment and lived alone in another neighborhood. So she decided that the hospital was safer.

Russians began to shell the area where the hospital was located on February 26. Since that day, the water supply was shut off, and the power has gone off occasionally. 

On March 3, the hospital was bombed.  A shell exploded nearby, and the blast wave blew out all the windows. And from that moment, it became freezing in the room, so the patients had to put on multiple layers of clothing, but it didn't help much. By that moment, there was no light and Internet. The next time Oksana was seen online was on March 30.

"I will never forget how people took care of me. Our family's friend Tetyana Goryunova, who is 81 years old, especially impressed me. She lives in the city center and knew I was in the hospital, so she came to visit me on foot under shelling and brought food. It was the beginning of March when explosions were all over the city," said Oksana.

People in the hospital learned about what was happening in other neighborhoods of Mariupol from the military, the newly wounded, and Red Cross volunteers, who brought medicine and water once every three days.

The wounded came to the medical facility every day: 40-50 people. At first, they could be transported by ambulances and civilian vehicles. Then there were explosions everywhere, so the soldiers and the guys from the Red Cross brought the wounded. 

"I remember two Ukrainian soldiers carrying a young woman Svitlana and her 5-year-old daughter Liza for more than 15 kilometers. The woman was injured. Only she, her daughter, and her brother survived. Her mother and other people who lived in the building died under the rubble," Oksana said.

Little Liza was placed in a medicine storeroom. The girl was in such a state of shock that she did not want to leave there for a week and a half; she was afraid of everything. Later, Oksana persuaded her to come out to her mother.

"The fighting was going on near us. We heard the blasts from shelling. The earth below us was lit up from the explosions. It was horrifying because you no longer control anything; nothing depends on you. Even my body refused to obey: I was shaking from adrenaline. We hid by two walls and prayed not to be hit. All the people behaved differently: some shouted, some covered their ears with their hands," said Oksana.

The behavior of the doctors was also impressive. They lost twice as much weight. The elevators did not work, so patients were carried up the stairs to the third floor, where the operating room was located. There was no electricity, but there was a generator.

The main doctor, Olga Golubchenko, made sure that there was food in the hospital. So at least a little, but people had something to eat. 

When Russians shelled the maternity hospital on March 9, all pregnant women were brought to the hospital where Oksana stayed. Nurses and gynecologists helped them to give birth.

On March 10, Oksana saw the Ukrainian flag on the roof from the window on the fifth floor. Tattered and wounded, he proudly fluttered under the onslaught of the frosty wind against the background of burning buildings.

The following day, the Russians occupied the 17th micro district and the hospital. 

"The nurse informed us that we were under occupation. She asked us to behave quietly, once again, not to talk to the military and not to express our attitude to avoid trouble," - said Oksana.

Then Russian soldiers came in with grenade launchers behind their backs. They searched every ward and office. Later they put soldiers of the DNR in charge.

For several days, a Russian tank stood near the hospital with its muzzle turned on the building. The medical staff was distraught that one day he would fire. And in three days, it happened. A huge hole appeared in the wall on the fifth floor. That shot injured 2-3 people. There was panic in the hospital. After that, all patients were moved to the basement.

There was a terrible stench and unsanitary everywhere in the hospital.

"I will never forget the smell of blood, sweat, pus, dirty bodies... People are just lying in the corridors, and no one comes to them because the doctors physically don't have time to help everyone. The sewage didn't work,'' - recalled Oksana.

The occupiers spread disinformation. The commander of the "DPR" pretended to be a comrade and suggested sick people go to Gurzuf (a town in Crimea). He said that President Zelensky had already fled Ukraine and that the Russians had almost taken Kyiv. People had no alternative information. But, according to Oksana, everyone felt that he lied.

Until March 17, shots were still heard in the 17th micro district, and the front line moved closer to the city center. In general, the capture of Mariupol looked this way: first, the Russians dropped bombs on some of the neighborhoods, and after destroying them, they cleaned them up. Then they pun DNR soldiers there, created roadblocks, and began to do the same to the next district of Mariupol.

When the hostilities near the hospital subsided, the Russians began distributing humanitarian aid. Long queues lined up near the vehicles every day.

"Once, I went outside and saw this queue. It seemed like a scene from a horror movie. People are exhausted, hungry, and cold. Fear and despair are in their eyes. We have all been reduced to the level of survival. Before, we had everything: housing, money, work... Now we stood in line to get a piece of bread like beggars," - recalled Oksana.

She wanted to go to Lviv (the city in the West of Ukraine), but she had no one to go with. Besides, it was dangerous. DNR soldiers shot civilians' cars when they tried to evacuate. So people ended up in the hospital instead of getting to the territory under Ukrainian control. And it was a bit of luck to survive.  

There was no organized evacuation from the city. And people in the hospital found out about some "green corridors" a few days later.

Twice a day, a bus took people to Nikolsky. The occupiers called it in the old way, Volodarsky. But they registered for that bus in advance. There were thousands of people in line. From Nikolsky, you could go to Donetsk or Russia for free. So it was a trip to Russia but not to Ukraine.

Oksana's emotional state was complex. In addition to problems with her leg, she also caught a bad cold. Al her medicines were two packets of anti-inflammatory and salt for gargling. Her voice subsided, the temperature persisted for several days.

Oksana understood that her cold would turn into pneumonia in a few more weeks. So the woman gathered courage and went to the new chief doctor, whom the Russians had brought from Donetsk. But there, she met the commander of the DNR soldiers who was guarding the hospital.

"I defiantly walked into the office and said: "I'm dying: on crutches, I've had a temperature of 38.5 for several days, my voice has dropped... I can't take it anymore. I need to go to Mangush." ​​That commander ordered the soldier to reserve a seat for me on the bus without waiting in line. I don't know why he helped, maybe because he remembered me. Once I demanded from him to stop smoking in the basement where the patients were. Or maybe my defenseless appearance on crutches did that," - Oksana said.

She believes that the crutches were her weapon, support, and protection. Such visual vulnerability gave her the strength even to defy the occupiers.

The next day, March 28, Oksana Galchenko left for the town of Berdyansk, Zaporizhzhia. Then she found herself in Lviv.

Now the woman is abroad. She dreams of victory. But she no longer plans to return to Mariupol. The city is associated with grief, suffering, and death. The place where she took the first step, where she danced her best dances, life stopped forever.