“It was my family, my family.” Natalia Rovytska is the director of the “First Ukrainian School in Poland” in Warsaw. Mrs. Natalia from Mariupol, came to Warsaw at the end of March, after the Russians bombed the 66th school on March 12.
We were so proud of our school…
We had a very good school. We had a tradition: graduates planted green Christmas trees as a gift for the school every year. And this year’s graduates also planted three Christmas trees.
And so, on March 12, parents came to my house and showed me photos showing that the 66th school had been directly hit by a bomb from an airplane. The explosion was very powerful — the central entrance and the central block — completely destroyed. And Christmas trees are destroyed. Parents said that the children were crying because everyone who lives near the school saw what happened.
Days and nights of continuous bombing
Since February 24, planes have been actively flying over Mariupol and bombing infrastructure. Usually, during the day. The maternity hospital, the central post office, and the building of the technical university were bombed. I live right in the center of the city and all these buildings were nearby. It was no longer possible to buy bread, since February 27, not a single store was open. There was no water. There was no light. Gas We cooked outside. It’s not so scary for me now.
On March 9, it snowed. Lots of snow. We collected it, the snow melted and thanks to that we had water. But when they started bombing at night, and these planes flew all day and all night, it was no longer possible to be there. We hid in the basement. There were 26 of us in total. Among them are children, three aged 3-6 years, and one three-month-old child. We were very worried that this mother would have milk because it was already impossible to get food for a three-month-old baby. We cooked semolina so that mom would eat, and she would have milk for Darynka.
After March 15 or 16 (I don’t remember the exact dates, they didn’t exist then) there were no evacuation corridors. Just a night of continuous bombing. In the morning, we realized that we had to leave the city. There were still some cars parked near our house, people from neighboring driveways and I got into those cars, took with us what we had in the basements (pillows, blankets, documents), and drove away under the shells and bombs falling on our heads, which were torn all around….
To hear what happened next, listen to the podcast.
The podcast is recorded in Ukrainian.
Published on the Voice House platform on 07/28/2022.
The interview was conducted by Eugenia Motrych.