"I waited to be evacuated to Azovstal, where I was from March 16 to 21. At 3 a.m. they woke me up and told me there would be an evacuation. By 4 am I was already ready, that is, lying on a stretcher. Then we drove around Azovstal under shelling for about an hour and a half. And another half hour or so we waited for the helicopter.
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"We took off and had the feeling that we might not take off. After takeoff, we flew for over an hour. Then the helicopter landed for refueling, and we were told that we were on our own ground, that is, in safe territory. It was such a relief. Then another 40 minutes of flight, and we landed at the airport in Dnipro. From there we were taken by ambulances to hospitals.”
"When I came to Azovstal, it was still, in principle, like a factory. You look - the building is in normal condition. By the time we left, it was impossible to recognize the plant. Everything was broken, there was no road, cars were driving on flat tires, there were craters and pits everywhere.
Sometime after March 15 the Russians started to engage aviation. Probably in an hour, an aircraft would drop about 3 bombs. This was going on continuously – both day and night. There were almost no breaks.”
"When I was wounded, the city still had functioning hospitals. The city center was still more or less alive. There were people there, stores were working. When they transported me to Azovstal on March 16, the city was already almost like Hiroshima. They were bombing it randomly. They were bombing everything! And on March 21, when we were already leaving, it was just... horror.”
"The Russians knew from somewhere that I was in the military, that I was in the regiment. They came to my parents' house. When they knocked on the door, I was just talking to my mother on the phone. They introduced themselves as being from the FSB and said that I was on the terrorism list, as was my family.
They knew that I was in Mariupol, but, according to them, I escaped from there. This is after the evacuation. That is, they even know that I evacuated from Mariupol.”
"Now I'm waiting for my bone to heal, for the plate to be removed, which requires another surgery. After that – rehabilitation. And then I plan to go back to the front.
Who will free our land? If everyone says "I don't want to", or "I'm scared" or something else... Or other reasons: "I've already seen a lot there", or "I fought a lot"... Who will go then? How many people will stay? Moreover, I'm a trained man. That's why I decided that I would go back to fight as soon as I'm back on my feet.”
