MUSHROOMS AND MINES. DANGER IN THE FORESTS OF UKRAINE

Serhiy, 69 years old, and his wife Lyuba, 66 years old, left the house to the nearest forest. From their apartment, you can see the M06 road - the direction of the Russian offensive on Kyiv in March. Next to the trees is an ancient garden. This is a place they often visited to pick mushrooms and raspberries and do their daily exercise. Lyuba has high blood pressure, so they like to walk as much as possible.

But the forest is now occupied by burned-out Russian tanks. Metal carcasses exploded, body armor smashed to the ground. A stark reminder of the battles fought here only a few months ago. Sergey and Lyuba are careful. They have only recently returned to this area. On March 3, their apartment was directly hit by a tank shell, the two upper floors of the building burned down, and they were forced to leave it.

"During the first walks, we were very careful where we were going, watched our steps, and also met people who were already there. So by the time of the accident, we had already been there three or four times. It was almost sunset that day. It was already getting dark and we decided to go a little further for mushrooms. I walked along the first row of trees, and Lyuba followed me. After walking a little further, I heard the sound of an explosion and the scream of my wife. I thought she was scared of the explosion, so I shouted, "Don't be afraid, I'm coming to you."

I ran and saw what happened to her. She was lying on the ground, her legs below the knee were completely crushed to the bone, and she had a 10cm gash on her stomach. She was pressing him with her hand. Her face was covered in soot, but she still wore her glasses. I cut the strap off the bag, made a harness and put it on my leg. I didn't have anything else with me, so I cut up the pants and made a tourniquet for her other leg. I gave her water to drink. My hands were covered in blood and I tried to call an ambulance the first time. The operator was trying to find us, so my wife told me to go and meet them."

Serhiy followed the ambulance, which was at the edge of the village. But due to the risk of new explosives in the area, medics could not enter the forest. For an hour, Serhiy desperately tried to keep Lyuba alive until the special services came to help.

“I took a syringe with a blood-stopping drug and two tourniquets and ran to my wife, it was almost dark then. She was so brave. I didn't tell her what happened to her legs. I told her help was almost here. I had an ax with me and saw that people were afraid to come closer, so I started cutting branches from the trees to mark the way. I went back to the ER and by then the police had arrived. The policeman and I, I think someone from the administration took the stretcher, I went ahead, and they followed at a distance."

When they arrived, Lyuba was still conscious. They put her on a stretcher. As they ran back through the forest, they sang "Chervona Kalina" to her, a traditional Ukrainian song, to give her strength. Unfortunately, Lyuba's injuries were catastrophic: she blew up a grenade while walking on the grass. She died on the way to the hospital.

Source: https://www.halotrust.org/latest/halo-updates/stories/dangers-in-the-forest/