Hero Houses 62 People in Izium Shelter in Ukraine

This is another interview I did with a survivor of the Izium occupation by the Russians. The battle started in March 2022 for control of the town of Izium due to the town's importance as a transportation node. The Russian military wanted to capture Izium so its forces in the Kharkiv Oblast could link up with their troops in the Donbas region.

On 10 September 2022, Ukrainian forces recaptured the town during the 2022 Ukrainian Kharkiv counteroffensive and local mass graves with 440 bodies were found. Izium's population decreased to just 10,000 due to the war.

This man, Andrey opened up a shelter for 60+ people and animals. He helped us locate dogs and cats to take to our clinic. Truly this guy is a hero. Angela Stoop, Кристина Драгомарецкая and I spent some time visiting with him in the shelter. He brought out his homemade alcohol and kind of challenged me to a drinking contest (Ukrainians love to share their alcohol with you). I explained that I was a Washington State University graduate and he was going to lose the contest since we were voted top party school in the USA by Playboy magazine. I don't think he understood, so I asked him about his experience during the occupation.

Andrey: 62 people suddenly came together in one basement. This building is from 1840. During the Second World War, people hid here. All of them lived here with me. I lived here for 300 days without electricity. There were a few candles. and we also pierced potatoes, pulled a bandage through it and poured sunflower oil and used as a candle. I will show you how to do it.

62 people lived here permanently, and sometimes more came. Up to 100 people. We were united by one common thought — the dream to survive.

Everyone slept on the floor. The oldest woman was 90 years old and we celebrated her birthday here. And the youngest was 2 months old. Let's go and show how my cat drinks water. I live in this house and people lived here from the very beginning of the war for five (5) months.

What was your scariest moment?

Andrey: I'm not a coward. I'm a man, I served in the army, but when I tell you, I get a lump in my throat. The worst thing is when planes bombed us. It was horror.

I'll show you. In my yard three cars burned down. When there were 70 people here, and bombs knocked out the doors, people ran to hide from one door to another. We sat on our knees and waited if the ceiling would fall or not. Everything was shaking. You don’t know where to go and what to do. I was the senior here and everyone was waiting for what I would say to do. One day we found out that a house had fallen near us and people were covered with slabs. it’s nightmare. We have a lot of children, about eight, three dogs, three cats, and two parrots. And it wasn't just one day, but for a long time.

What about the animals that had owners before the war?

Andrey: Here is the dog Bun, for example. I rescued her. She lost her family and home.

How many animals have you adopted?

Andrey: A dog with puppies. She had five puppies, but I found families for four of them, and left one for me. One cat. But in general, a lot comes to me. I cook porridge for them, and my friends bring me dry food. I still distribute this food to grannies so that they can feed dogs and cats.

Are there many homeless animals here?

Andrey: I'll arrange a tour for you now. They are near the store now. Let's go feed the cats.

I try to find families for them. I have a light hand, but my friend has puppies and he tries to find families, but he couldn’t. In general, we feed animals. We don’t have very thin animals in the city center.

I dreamed of adopting these puppies and when families came to pick them up, I started crying. It was so sad.

Did you meet Russians?

Andrey: Yes. They stripped me to the waist in the street. They wanted to check if there are any hematomas from the butt of a machine gun, to see if you were a military man. It was very cold when they made me strip. And tattoos were checked for nationalist ones. All the men were taken out and checked. We were asked what we are doing here. And I was afraid that all people would be kicked out of the shelter, because it was cold outside. We had children and elderly.

By the way, I later became the godfather of that little girl. Her mother said that I had saved them and that she wanted me to baptize her. We drove to the church through 10 checkpoints, but we were allowed to pass because we were with a small child.

By the way, when we lived here all together here, the mother of this two-month-old girl ran out of milk due to stress. She fed her dry formula. It was impossible to go outside to cook something. There were always explosions. We didn’t even go to the toilet. We just put a bucket and when someone wanted to go to the toilet, the rest turned away. To brew a mixture for a child, you need hot water and to heat it, we took water into a bottle and put it on our stomach under our clothes, and so that way we heated the water for porridge. We were sometimes afraid that the child might go blind, because she was always looking at the candle and living in the dark. We didn’t take her out of the basement, we were very afraid.

What happened when the Russian military changed?

Andrey: Yes, they organized sweeps and checks here every day. Chechens, Buryats, Russians. They are insane. I am generally half Russian. I was born in Magadan and lived there for 15 years. My mother is from Murmansk and my father is from Izyum. Imagine a Buryat comes to me and tells me that he will teach me the Russian language. I told him, “Listen, you are “so smart”, you see that the word Russia is written on your tank with two errors.” And is he going to teach me?

Somehow the Russian military came to our basement, saw that we were 60 people on the floor in the dark. That we have so many children. And simply in shock they ask, “how do you live here?” I say, “But this is how we survive. Do we have a choice?” They were always looking for the guys from the territorial defense. They were hiding with us, but we did not betray them.

I always have guests here. Still comes to spend the night a lot of people. Everyone knows about me and now they bring mattresses here. Volunteers also spend the nights here.

What was your scariest moment with the Russians?

Andrei: When I was arrested. They searched my house, took me and my son away. Beat us. Hurt my fingers for the fact that I did not hand over my weapon. I have a hunting one at home.

Did you have any news about what was going on in the rest of Ukraine?

Andrey: No, we didn't have a connection. We didn't know anything. We weren’t sure if all of Ukraine had fallen to the Russians.

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Our next mission starts on March 5 near Khearson, Ukraine. Volunteers on the ground have told us since the Russians have been pushed back across the Dnipro River, there are an unreal amount of homeless and injured dogs and cats. Can you help us by donating $44 for an animal to be sterilized, vaccinated and microchipped? We also provide pet food to these villages, as well as flea treatment and calming meds for the animals. Please help by donating at https://www.gofundme.com/UWARF