Igor (60)
June 8, 2022, Zilina. Day 104 of war.
He didn't want me to photograph his face. When you read what he told me, you'll probably understand why that was. It is a simple historical analysis of the situation and leadership of Russia. His opinion does not agree with the politics of Russia, and can be perceived as problematic. The task of this documentary project is not to politicize, but it is important to hear the opinions of individual witnesses of the war. I am grateful to this doctor for putting his trust in me and for sharing his views with me.
"I escaped on an evacuation train from the city of Sumy. The situation in the city was really serious. The Russians practically reached the suburbs, we were surrounded on three sides. First, women with children were evacuated, but wagons for the elderly were also arranged. I decided to leave because the situation was unbearable. Constant sirens, running to shelters... At first I took the danger seriously, but then you get used to it, you no longer have the energy to run to the basement several times a night. More and more people began to behave this way, and by the end most of the residents of our apartment building did not go anywhere. So that you can imagine: you are preparing breakfast at 9 in the morning, and in half an hour the siren goes off and you have to run somewhere. People didn't even undress anymore, they were still ready to run away. You live in a cycle, in some kind of strange circles that have no end, no light at the end of the tunnel, only daily nervousness and fear. When I learned that an evacuation was about to take place, I decided to leave. No one knew how it would end. We could have ended up like Mariupol.”
"They brought a convoy of 40 evacuation buses to our housing estate. They filled up quickly, and I had to wait for hours to see if there was even a free seat for me. Finally, they allowed me to get on one of them, and we went to the Zaporozhye region, where they first fed us, and then put us on a train. We went to Lviv by train. I decided to stay there for a while. However, many immediately changed to the next train and went to Poland. There were people from all over Ukraine in Lviv, some of them waited in lines for their train for 2 days.”
"I knew that most people were heading to Poland, so I decided to go to Slovakia. First, I went by bus to Kosice, where the volunteers advised me city of Zilina. I like the country, it is clean, peaceful, people are good, they help us. This is my story in a nutshell. I don't think it's any different from the thousands of other stories you've probably heard. I arrived in Zilina on May 30.”
"I worked in healthcare at home, I'm a doctor. I was in charge of large enterprises, where I issued decisions about the fitness to work for workers. This is how I earn extra in retirement, I'm already 60 years old.”
“My parents stayed at home. They are 86 years old, at their age the journey would be very difficult. I tried to talk them out of it, but to no avail. I'm divorced, I don't have intensive contact with my family and children, I don't even know where they are. I came alone. After all, I'm not going to sit at home and wait for a bomb to fall on me. You cannot live under such pressure. At one point you decide to pack up and leave. Even now Sumy is under fire, we live only 30 km from the Russian border. I want to go back, but the situation has to calm down. I have many acquaintances in Ukraine who stayed there, but I don't know what happened to them. I lost the SIM card through which we communicated, along with all the contacts. I would like to know what happened to them. One reads about what is happening, how ordinary people are forced to collect bodies around the city and collect them by the roads, from where they are taken to who knows where. A woman from Mariupol told me that the city was completely destroyed. No one knows what will happen next with the city, with the apartments, with the plant. Everything is destroyed. The only hope is the West, which can help us. But we have to win first. And I believe we will win.”
"The war was inevitable. The Russians have been preparing for it for years. They attacked Georgia and Moldova before us, they are trying to dismember everyone around them. Putin did not like that he lost his protégé Yanukovych. They invested a lot of money in him, but people saw it differently, and eventually they took him down. The fact that Yanukovych decided that Ukraine would not go to the EU and extended the lease of Sevastopol to Russia also played a role. The nation didn't like it, so they had to act. Putin cannot forgive the Ukrainians, and this is his revenge. His actions have no logic. It's hard to say what's going on in his head, whether he's even mentally healthy. It seems to me that he suffers from paranoia. Russia is suffering because of massive sanctions from all sides, but he doesn't see it, it's all nonsense. It is terrible that one person destroys such a big country like this. I don't know if everyone is afraid of him or if the nation has believed the propaganda and therefore supports him. Apparently, many support him, despite the fact that their own children are dying on the front lines. The most terrifying thing is that Russia has a nuclear arsenal. No one believed that there would be a war, but he decided to do so. It is very difficult to predict what else he will do. In Ukraine today, more than 90% of the population hates Russia. There will never be such relations as they were before the war. Several generations would have to be replaced, but maybe even that won't be enough.”
"Putin will stop at nothing. He gets rid of generals, sends inconvenient people to die at the front. Russia is already a country that is always at war with someone. The USSR also went to Afghanistan, and why? Because of the bare rocks and wasteland? After all, it only gave them dead bodies and blood. Now I hear they are also somewhere in Africa. They have always wanted to be on top of the world, they will always strive. Just as the Germans tried during the war, the Russians are constantly trying too. Today, Stalin is once again an idol in Russia, despite the fact that he was a mass murderer. Putin wants to be very much like him. Death awaits him, but when? Maybe Russia will also perish one day. The country has always held together only thanks to a strong power from above, but if it gives way, the whole country can fall apart. That is the fate of empires. Eternal empires do not exist. These are just the last convulsions that are trying to prevent its disintegration. In the past, there were huge empires like the Roman Empire, the British Empire, the French Empire, each eventually disintegrated. The universe cannot be subdued. With Putin, you really don't know what will happen next. We can't say that he will attack Europe, but we can't say with certainty that he won't either. After all, he is a person who deals with the occult. It is said that together with Shaygu, somewhere in the taiga, they went to see shamans, where they killed bears and eagles, and the result was that they received a prediction that they would win the war. Do you understand now? Is it possible that such important matters can be decided behind some silly ceremonies? It's a disaster for the whole world."