It was on March 5 that Natalia, 54 (she declined to reveal her last name), heard the news that Russian and Ukrainian forces had agreed a ceasefire so that civilians trapped in basements and buildings in Mariupol could leave the city.
The population was instructed to gather at specific points, and those who lived in the central region like themselves were to meet at the theater; from there, they would be escorted by the military. An explosion in the center turned the place that would be a stopping point into a shelter, until he himself was attacked by an attack, days later.
Natalia, now admitted to a hospital in ZaporÃjia, told the report about the days she was sheltered in the theater and the moments that followed the destruction of the place.
“From day one, the region where we lived was heavily bombed. There was no time of day when we didn’t hear bombs exploding very close”, he recalls, about the beginning of the siege of Mariupol. “When we got the message that we could leave, we did so immediately.”
On that 5th, she then went to the theater with her mother, Viktoria, 86, her daughter Ieva, 30, and her boyfriend, Volodimir, 28. The war had barely begun, but there were already many bodies not collected, making the city smell very bad.
Natalia’s family found in the shelter a crowd of thousands of people carrying only what was important in their lives. Having hurriedly fled from destroyed homes, many children wore little or were wet.
“I was born in Russia, my mother and father are Russians, I have family in St. Petersburg. We thought Russians would respect us.”
Hours passed, the number of people in the theater only increased and, in the middle of the afternoon, an explosion was felt in the center of Mariupol – the sound of an airplane over the city made many people panic. “We felt an earthquake. The military got out by car, many people fled back to the basements they had come from and many more entered the theater to seek shelter.”
From that moment on, the port city that is considered by the Russians to be key to building a land bridge between Crimea and the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk has not had an hour of peace. Every day and at any time many bombs were dropped on the buildings, turning Mariupol quickly into ruins.
“We felt safe in the theater because the walls seemed very strong and the ceiling was very high. There was also a basement; we all went inside and we didn’t come out of there for anything.”
The Ukrainians had not planned to house thousands of people there, and the situation was getting more and more complicated — even though people were always kind to each other.
“We had little food, volunteers brought us what they could. There was no electricity, there was no gas. It was very cold, especially at night and especially in the basement. “
Without beds or mattresses, for more than 10 days people slept sitting in the audience. “All the chairs were taken, the stage, the aisles. Women with children could stay in a narrow aisle that seemed safer, as it was farther away from the windows.”
According to Natalia, at least 1,500 people were trapped there, unable to get out due to unremitting attacks. “There was no water to clean the bathroom, the toilets were clogged. Life became hell.”
The air in the more enclosed areas became unbearable, and people began to seek shelter closer to the exits. A barricade of furniture was erected to protect people from shrapnel. To ensure that children and women could be in the front area safely, the idea came to write the word “child” on the floor of the theater’s sidewalk, with paints that were in the theater.
The warning, however, appears to have provoked Russian forces.
On the 16th, Volodymir was tired. He found a book and decided to go read by the door. Natalia and Ieva preferred to stay inside, accompanying Viktoria, who was uncomfortable with the cold—the moisture from people’s breath condensed on the windows froze, forming a layer of ice.
Shortly after the son-in-law left, an explosion erupted around the building. Natalia lost consciousness and only remembers when she woke up hearing screams and cries, her daughter’s voice calling her name. And the cold.
“I didn’t remember where I was, what was happening in those days. I just thought about trying to protect my daughter and my mother. When I remembered everything, I felt a lot of pain, my legs felt like pieces of meat, my arm was injured. life would end there.”
Soon help appeared, the most injured were taken to hospital. Ieva and Viktoria had not been hurt, and that reassured Natalia. “Some men lifted me up with a sheet and took me to a car. There were many dead, the roof of the theater no longer existed, the theater was split in two.”
Russia denies attacking the site and says it does not target civilians. So far, there has been no independent verification of how many people were sheltered there, how many were rescued and how many died.
At the hospital, which specializes in cardiology, doctors said that with the structure of the place they could not help Natalia. Shortly after, a Russian military vehicle arrived with wounded soldiers, to whom the doctors said the same — and then they were threatened. “My daughter managed to convince the Russians to take her wounded colleague and me to the N3 emergency hospital. They agreed, but told Ieva that if the soldier died, they would kill me too.”
There, all that was possible was to put bandages to try to stop the bleeding. Doctors said they could just try to amputate Natalia’s leg — and even then they couldn’t guarantee she would survive.
Three days passed before a group of volunteers agreed to take a risk to take her. “The streets were destroyed, and all kinds of bombs were still being dropped on the city.”
In a van with other patients, Natalia went to Berdiansk, where she had to leave her mother, already very sick, in a shelter. Then, on the way to ZaporÃjia, she says that the vehicle had no problems at the checkpoints. “Russian soldiers couldn’t look into my eyes, into my wounds. They should be ashamed, I could be their mother.”
In the hospital, accompanied by her daughter, she does not know if her mother is still alive. Volodymir’s whereabouts are unknown to this day.
