Людмила Севастьянова Lyudmila Sevastyanova

It was tough for the two of us financially... I vividly remember those privatization certificates we were given. We didn't know where to invest them, which companies... At a certain point, our salaries in the medical field, for doctors, started to be delayed. I clearly remember that on March 8th, I had no money left, and we hadn't been paid on time. So my son and I went to the market and sold those certificates to buy some food.

I was invited to join a very small delegation: Pinchuk, the vice-president of the Association of Psychiatrists [Iryna Yakivna Pinchuk, since 2023, the president of the Ukrainian Psychiatric Association], me, a guy from the Ministry of Health, and the rector of the Ternopil Medical Institute. We went to Georgia for an experience exchange. And so you can imagine, the year is [20]14, it's not yet liberated, so to speak, we still have the “DPR” here. And I said, “How am I going to get there? I don't know!” — “Well, get through it somehow.” And I'm going by bus, my son and daughter-in-law seeing me off. It's the month of June. I get on a bus and go to Donetsk. I get off, take a train on the other side, and go to Kyiv. Then we took a plane from there to Georgia. Four days… in Lviv. They then somehow foresaw everything — helping [with] PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] and temporarily displaced people. We traveled to the border with North Ossetia, to refugee camps, to see how social assistance is provided in Georgia and, in general, what innovations were introduced under [Mikheil] Saakashvili. On the last day, we're sitting on the summer deck at a restaurant, and I get a text my sister-in-law sends me, “It's very loud here, very scary”. I had tears in my eyes. They say, “Well?” — “I don’t know!” So I flew to Kyiv and took a train to Kramatorsk. And as far as Donetsk, they say, “No, they don't receive [trains] anymore in Donetsk”. Then Krasnoarmeysk [since 2016, the city of Pokrovsk], then Kramatorsk. And I arrived probably Wednesday or Thursday, and on Saturday, she and I went to the market, with my sister-in-law, to the Old Town, and they told us, “Get lost!”. And I say, the neighbor says, ”What do you mean?” — “There was a column that went along the Novyi Svit, we got a call!” Now that was kind of ... It's scary, but it wasn't serious. I managed to fly to Georgia during these events.

On January 25, 2023, the same spot was shelled again. — The same one as the first time? — Same as the first one, spot on. Everyone gathered again. Well, yes, it’s good that no one [was injured]. Even though the department was already on the ground. Here is the 4-story [building which, before the first shelling of September 7, 2022, housed the department of the psychiatric hospital], and we are here, it hit there. On March 23, [20]23, was the third shelling. — In the same spot? — No. Now here is the 4-story, and here, behind, are the boiler room and the garages. It hit the garages. There were two cars there. And the family garages [of the doctors]. Those were destroyed as well. The boiler room wasn’t ours, it was KMRTS’s [Russian: Kramatorskmezhrayteploset, Kramatorts Inter-District Heating Network], half of the pipe was destroyed, and gas was burning. But they did it fast, restored everything. — Were the windows blown out in the hospital? — Yes, of course, of course. The roof was blown off, too. The roof was [blown off] twice, first, it was after the first shelling, in September, and then, after the second shelling. It stood there leaking for a year, and then they finally [repaired] it, money got allocated. The windows are still boarded up with OSB and everything. — Do you remember your emotions? There have been three strikes on your workplace, what were your first emotions, thoughts, this sort of thing? — Terrible emotions. The first time was at night, but this, how to put it, you’re in shock. I think, this can be more accurately compared to shock. On the first morning, I arrived at 6 a.m., I got a call, the mayor called at night, and everything else was by morning. The second time, it was during the day, we were at work. When it was in the same spot, we were sitting, heard the thunder, on same same day. On January 25, we were at work. When the boiler room was hit, it was also at night.