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A day that became a record breaker. The Russians fired more than 850 shells, 7 Shahads, 3 S-300 missiles over the Kherson region. 70% of the residents of the regional center were left without light. As a result of the shelling, three people were killed and 16 wounded.
There are two trains on the Kiev platform on two adjacent tracks - one has just arrived from Kherson and should leave for Kramatorsk, the other - will start from Kiev to Kherson.
I run to my car, almost jump on the step, the conductor does not even look at the ticket, but at the last moment it becomes clear - I confused the train and almost ended up in the one that goes to Donetsk. I am not superstitious, but the same feeling arises: something bad can happen with this train. On the other hand, we go to Kherson - a southern city where “bad” can happen at any moment. We will arrive safely, even drink coffee - the next day the coffee shop will no longer open and will be left without windows, the train will be declared evacuation, and the station will be smashed.
Approaching Kherson, I meet Marichka Paplauskaite on the train. My friend, with whom we always meet in strange places - then in Lithuania, then in a Kiev fish restaurant, then in a placard car. Marichka goes to Kherson for one day, because she writes a book about railway workers. Marichka wants to talk to the head of the Kherson railway station to tell her about the evacuation of people from the city. Marichka is worried because she will have to spend the whole day at the station, joking that she will try to stay closer to the shelter.
Her train should leave in the evening. We do not yet know that people will be offered evacuation at this time, and up to 140 passengers will gather at the station - mostly with children.
And in a couple of hours it is from Marichka that I will find out: the train on which we arrived is broken, the station is damaged, she is in shelter, she has a cat in her hands, wounded policemen and passengers, who must be evacuated by buses to Nikolaev.
About her “adventures” she already in the morning write a great post on the social network. Yes, she was looking for stories for the book, but hardly planned for things to turn out that way. Most of all, she is surprised that she remained alive, and that the train arrived in Kiev, as planned, at 7:20.
Already in the morning we see the station of Kherson. The letters “VOKZAL” fell, on the top hangs an absolutely intact and intact flag.
There are no windows, but they are not here for the first time. They were already covered with bags, clogged with wood. In the waiting room, where passengers are usually checked, there is a Christmas tree - only a little toy is scattered, and the “gifts” under it are covered with dust. The walls are all in the hole.
People dream from all sides. There is a lot of work here - you need to sweep, get things out of the rubble, remove dust and debris.
A train is preparing to start on the platform. Despite the shelling and the smashed station, the train is moving from the platform again. We wave to the conductors, wish a happy road. Their wagons are intact and are taking people out again.
On the stairs there are traces of blood. Here lay the body of a policeman from Kirovograd region. We only know what was officially reported about him - he was 29, his wife left, and two more children. He died on a staircase that was supposed to serve as a shelter.
Two other police officers were wounded. Two other civilians were wounded.
They are in the hospital.
Broken shops, broken coffee shops, broken beauty salons. Damaged power lines are all we see next to the station.
Khersonets Pavel - pulls trolleybus wires:
“Pochti beat the whole line! We will try hard it will do everything. This is our job.”- Paul tells me with a serious look.
The remains of glass from the windows are dug out by Oleg and Natalia. They laugh during this work, and try to comfort me too:
“Glass is glass. The most important thing is the human resource. For all of us. We're holding on. Kherson is Ukraine!”
The shopping center is still a little smoky - as many as three shaheeds hit it. The “shelter” pointer is covered with fragments. Nearby is a fire engine, because it still smokes in places. Rescuers are running. There are no windows, but the owners of small shops are trying to open and work.
It is not only difficult in the city. In the villages for this difficult day, the dead are counted. In Nikolsk, two people died as a result of shelling. The dead man is taken from under the rubble in Tyaginka. Then it will become known - another died (probably due to the discharge of ammunition from a quadrocopter) in Novoberislav.
Of the 16 wounded, four in Chernobayivka. A heavy one flew in a small village on the outskirts of Kherson at about 5 pm. They targeted a local agricultural enterprise that feeds people with bread, but the lyceum was also affected.
The rockets fell apart - three large ravines at a short distance.
“According to our information and judging by the destruction we have, three missiles arrived. A private agricultural enterprise was affected. Chornobaev secondary educational general school-lyceum and private household houses. Among them were civilians - four citizens were wounded.”- reports Igor Dudar, former village chief, now head of the military administration.
The blast wave scattered neighboring houses - somewhere flew into the hut. Somewhere the slate was torn off, somewhere it brought out the shingles.
In the school, the windows remained only in some places. Children studied online, but stayed behind school, sometimes you could practice here - for example, play football. In the morning after the shelling, the children just had to go to Nikolaev for the competition.
On the beaten school fence is a portrait of Lesya Ukrainka, also beaten. And the promise is to laugh through tears, sing songs in the midst of disaster. Sometimes it seems that the inhabitants of the Kherson region do just that.
