Lyubovychi is one of the villages of the Malyn region on the border of Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions, which for several weeks in March suffered from constant air and missile strikes by the Russian Federation. Now the local community is recovering from the experience and getting their homes in order, informs General Office of the National Police.
Viktor Melnyk, the headman of the Lyubovychi chief district, says that 7 houses were completely destroyed in the village, and more than 100 were damaged.
"It's only 4 km left to the Kyiv region from here and the whole world already knows what happened there. Thank God, our people are alive – a total of 400 inhabitants live in the village. Most of them were evacuated in time. Now, for the third day, we are recording and describing the consequences of military operations with the relevant commission, " says the headman. "The school was destroyed, the canteen and workshops were hit."
Olga Ivanivna and Viktor Parfiyovych Savchuk did not leave the village. The day the explosion occurred near their house, they were at home.
"During the shelling, we hid in the basement of our neighbors, but that time we didn't have time to go there. We ran into the bathroom and fell. I hear: one, two, three nearby.I think, well, they're done... We're going to leave the house to see if it's lit anywhere. And then there was a bang right next to us – we were already in the corridor. Everything flies and whistles. Good thing, we didn't have time to go outside, because a blast wave raised cut logs of firewood from neighbor's yard and they flew like matches...Fortunately, nothing caught fire."
The couple later saw that only the facade wall remained of the neighbor's house – everything else was instantly destroyed, just two meters from the house there was a huge crater with a diameter of up to 10 m. The owners at that time managed to evacuate: the woman and her children left for the western regions, and the man moved to relatives in another village, from time to time looking after his farm.
In the house of Savchuk couple, the wall was turned around, the roof was blown off and windows were broken. But they are convinced that the main thing is that no one died:
"If we are alive – we will appreciate life better, because we have understood what life really is"- says Viktor Parfyiyovych.
Another resident of the village, 85-year-old Olga Nychyporivna Sachenko, recalls the hard times of the Second World War.
"We decided that God wills, so it will be.. I was in the house, as it blurted out, jumped out, and I was muffled... The windows were on the ground, the frames were on the ground, the door was jammed, the lock was interrupted.I ran after my mother that war, and reached this one," the woman said.