Dnipro - Day 4

by Minakova Kateryna

This is an article by Minakova Kateryna, a person who earns my highest respect. She lives in Dnipro, Ukraine, a city on the Dnipro River roughly 200 kilometers west of the Russian-occupied regions in the far east. More after the article.

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by Minakova Kateryna, teacher, archaeologist, Ukrainian


Hello, thank you for thinking of me and standing for my beloved Motherland Ukraine. 

Today was day four of the war escalation which started on February, 24.

It is still unreal. I have been imagining this since 2014 when the war started with the occupation of Crimea and invasion of Donbass.

It doesn't look anything like I was thinking, so probably you also imagined it wrong.

First, I thought there would be fear. I was in fear in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Dnipro, 2020

I don't feel fear now. I am scared when I hear the bombs, scared of people in uniform and I am not ready to die. But there is no fear.

What I feel now is a deep grief like after my father died. Grief and loss and shock.

Second, I thought that I will be mobile. Even if I had a car, I wouldn't be able to move because there is a shortage of fuel, and because on the road you are an easy target. On day two Russians shot into a car with a woman and her baby moving to the West. Today Russians shot in the head a woman who was open place walking with three children, the youngest child is three months old. I am trying not to think about the older siblings.

Third, because I thought I would be sitting and trembling.

Instead, I am very busy. The first day I was packing two emergency bags, the second day I withdrew some cash, and I bought two-months stock of pills that my mom takes daily.

The third day I bought things I hadn’t thought about, and some things "just in case" like toothpaste, batteries for flashlights, napkins - all small stupid things you never notice ‘til you don't have them.

Dnipro City Center, the historic Hotel Ukraine.

And I got a list from volunteers from which I bought disposable cutlery, tea, coffee, snacks to donate to people from Kharkiv who are now in Dnipro.

I was careful with buying because the situation with banks is not clear. The very same day I received my first donation from an unknown person from Greece who donated through Fiverr, it covered my donation fully.

Today in the morning I received another donation from my Chinese student through Wechat and it took some time to withdraw it here.

I put some of my own money to that amount and donated it in cash to people who are setting the bomb shelter, it is dug in the ground and boys were excavating it, I was walking right on top of it for 30 years and even didn't know it is there.

We also bought some more snacks for ourselves because they started to bomb cities and we had air-strike warnings (we missed the first ones, we were outside and the bad thing we have discovered - sirens are not heard in my neighbourhood, so I will hear the rocket not the warning). 

Dnipro, spring, 2020

The bomb shelter is very small and it is quite far from our house, so we wouldn't have time to get there. That was not the best thing to discover so we with my neighbour had to clean up the small corridor space between our apartments. We put there some water, sleeping bags and blankets.

And there was another bad discovery - we have a neighbour who barely walks, she is old (I don't know how old) she lives alone and her children normally provide her with food. We thought that they took her to their place. But she is still home alone!!! She didn't know about bombing warnings. I asked her to pack her documents and come to our corridor as soon as she hears the strikes. We need to care about her now, I didn't count food for her and if a fire starts it will be difficult to take her outside (we live on the third floor). Can't believe they left her?

Dnipro, a relic of the 1919 Russian Bolshevik Invasion of Ukraine, a railroad gun carriage. The current attempt is not Russia’s first invasion.

Also I am busy talking to people, I love you for texting me with your support, friend in need is the friend indeed!

On top of that I decided to continue teaching not to get crazy and to be able to provide me and my family and people in need (this granny for sure).

And the last, I was imagining the war in black and white, but I feel sorry for Russian boys who were killed here in great numbers (up to 4000). Their government sent them without the protective equipment. I am sorry for their mothers, Russians are trying to burn the bodies in moving crematoriums. We have here the mothers whose children we were not able to recover in Donbass, they are still waiting for them, hoping, not able to move on. I feel so sorry for them. But we need to protect our lives, literally. We are on our land and it is either we or they. Our government opened a hotline for Russian mothers who lost contact with their 18, 19, 20-year old children. Some of them are captured and will return home but for some that was the last fight. 

Some Russian soldiers beg citizens of occupied territories to feed them (would I feed that 18-19-20-year-old who came to kill me and my family?). Others rob the shops, I am not sorry for robbers.

I don't have plans for future, there might be no future and everything changes fast. I will see where I can help and do it, I will try to work, I will stay calm and focused and try to stay in touch. 

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Kateryna was my Ukrainian tutor before I moved to Ukraine. By coincidence I ended up in her home-city Dnipro. She, however, was in China, teaching languages. However, in December 2019 she returned home for the holidays. But, she was unable to return to China because of a virus outbreak. She showed me how her Chinese colleagues were having to pivot to online classes overnight. One teacher had to hike up a hill to find a spot with good enough signal.. She thought in a few weeks she’d be able to return. She’s still in Dnipro and the virus is everywhere.

Lucky me, however! I had some in-person tutoring. And, since she is an archeologist and historian, I got a fantastic history walk through a decidedly non-touristy part of town - my idea of fun, and hers too. She showed me the Bolshevik gun carriage shown above.