“I have a wound in my back – I want to leave so much”: The horror of Mariupol through the eyes of an 8-year-old

by

The diary that little Igor kept secret in Mariupol records the harsh images of the war.

It’s one of the bloodiest chapters ever since its inception war in Ukraine describing in words and drawings an eight-year-old boy: Igor Kravtsov kept a secret diary in Mariupol while Ukrainian forces were defending the city besieged by the Russian army.

Spending weeks in a basement with his family, Igor filled the pages of a small blue notebook with a photo on the cover of an idyllic Greek landscape.

«I slept well, then woke up, smiled and read 25 pages. My grandfather also died on April 26 “says Igor reading a page from his diary after escaped, with his mother and sisterfrom the city that is now under the control of Russian forces.

The family managed to escape to Zaporizhia, which is 225 kilometers northwest of Mariupol and is under the control of Ukrainian forces.

The roof of their house fell on the family from a rocket and the three were injured.

«I have a wound in my back, my skin was torn. “My sister has been hit in the head, my mom’s arm muscles have been cut and she has a hole in her leg.”Igor wrote on another page of his diary.

“Everyone was crying”

It’s a sunny day in Zaporizhia and Igor plays badminton and rides a bike, away from the world of disaster he painted in his diary with a blue pen.

In these paintings there are armed men, tanks, a helicopter and buildings exploding. In one painting, the ceiling of his house appears to be collapsing after the rocket strike.

“The noise scared me,” he writes on one page, while on another describes how his family members cared for each other’s injuries and then went in search of water.

“I want to leave so much”writes Igor at some point.

His mother, Olena Kravtsova, a single parent, burst into tears when she found her son’s diary.

“I got to show it to the family. “Everyone was crying,” he told AFP.

“Maybe he wanted to express what he feels so as not to keep it to himself.” appreciates.

THE 15 year old sister his, Veronica, who has a deep mark on her forehead, says she hopes “In the future to find the diary useful to someone”.

Photos of the diary were first posted online by his grandfather’s brother, Gevgeny Sosnowski, a photographer, who captured the battle to defend Mariupol before leaving the city last month.

The family lived near the Azovstal steel plant, which was last handed over to Russian forces after three months of strong resistance by Ukrainian soldiers inside.

Today Igor’s family lives in a refugee camp in Zaporizhia and plans in the coming days to travel to the capital, Kyiv.

The boy’s mother says she is still in shock and is reluctant to share her experiences.

Asked if he wanted to continue writing in the future, Igor replied: “Probably”.

You May Also Like

Recommended for you