“Go through the sandbags on the ground floor,” said one elderly man, “go down the hall to the stairs.” On the second floor there are some doors and we stopped at number two. NATO predicts another major Russian offensive – live updates The medical director of the hospital, Valentina Tsubatenko, told us that we would find similar scenes in any ward in eastern Ukraine – the same kind of injuries, the same kind of suffering, mental and physical. “Our doctors have a lot of work to do, it’s the same for everyone, it’s very difficult,” said Dr Tsubatenko. Picture: The hospital in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk “It was unthinkable” We found a man named Alexandr Dyachanko sitting in the corner of the room. His body was covered with a characteristic, blue-green antiseptic paint, which was applied to his wounds caused by a large explosion. He told us that he had just finished his breakfast on the morning of March 18 when he almost lost his life. “I drank coffee, went to the bedroom, and it happened in an instant, it was unthinkable, just ‘bang’ and then nothing,” he said. In an attack that was both indiscriminate and deliberate, Mr Dyachanko’s apartment building in central Kramatorsk was hit by a series of rockets. The big waves of explosions caused by the explosions broke the windows, the frames and the doors. The contents of the apartment were dumped in the surrounding area. Image: Locals said six people from the building were killed “How can you order the destruction of a residential area?” “I have these pieces on my shoulder, the glass and all the rubbish that was thrown away,” Diacanco said. “Everything was flying because of the blast wave and here, torn by the explosion. They sewed me up.” Residents in the area said six people from the building were killed in the blasts, while another 28 were injured. “How can you order the destruction of a residential area?” Mr Dyachenko demanded. “It happens everywhere in Ukraine.” Follow the Daily Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker Mr. Dyachenko, who runs a small business, has two in the room with his neighbor, Vitali Vyhotsev, who lived in the same building. Vitali remembers two explosions on the morning of March 18. The second explosion has left him blind. “I was in my apartment, on the first floor,” he recalls. “The first explosion was big and I went to the window and saw the glass falling from the higher floors. The second explosion took place at that moment. “I was blown up by the explosion at the end of the room or maybe in the hallway. Somehow, I got up and moved in the direction of the entrance from my memory. Somehow, the volunteers took me out.” His mother looked at him with tears in her eyes. Doctors told Mr Vyhotsev, a steel worker, that we could regain some vision in his left eye – but he knew his life would never be the same. “Is this a worrying moment for you?” I asked. “Yes, yes it is, to lose your sight,” he replied. Picture: Another resident, Vitali Vyhotsev, left blind by the second explosion “My kids grabbed a rocket – and it exploded in the house” On the other side of room two, we met a man named Viacheslav Yepiefantsev, who had been admitted with extensive shrapnel wounds. He told us that a rocket hit his house. However, the gun was not fired until his children touched it. “So he came in through our window and the kids were kids, they just snatched it,” he recalls. “It was not big with a tail, the children grabbed it and it exploded in the house. “My daughter had a lot of shrapnel on her legs and the pieces went all over her body. “My son was sent to the hospital in Dnipro.” Subscribe to Ukraine War Calendars on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker The explosion seriously injured his daughter, Darina, who was one year and seven months old. The surgical team at Kramatorsk Hospital spent five hours trying to stop the bleeding. Tragically, they failed to save her life. Image: Dr. Maksym Ubozhenok is head of the hospital’s surgical department “All wars are irrational – impossible to understand” Dr. Maksym Ubozhenok is the head of the hospital’s surgical department. “You can not get used to it,” he said. “I have treated children for 30 years in the operating room, but these injuries are completely different.” He had brought Daryna X-rays and placed them on the window, highlighting metal spots all over her body. “This is the abdomen area, here are some fragments. They are just metal fragments, but wood and concrete (fragments), you can not see them here,” he said. I asked Dr. Ubozhenok if there was a way to reconcile them all – the brutality of these acts and their confusing randomness. “It’s completely absurd,” he said. “It’s surreal, this war, all wars are absurd. It’s impossible to understand.”
