On June 27th I was dinning out when at 15:44 sirens echoed through the downtown. Again… we had a siren just an hour ago… I think to myself waiting for my order. People around seemed not to notice a siren at all. A family of 4, probably well-off refugees from Kharkiv, immersing themselves in a friendly chatter, business lady in front struggling with a new QR-code menu and teenage girls snickering behind… what siren? Oh! You mean this annoying distracting sound? Well, we pretend not to notice it, we filter out, WE DON’T LISTEN. It is normal… now.
Yesterday was 1 month since the heinous terroristic act shocked my hometown to the core. In Ukraine, as a custom, we commemorate those who fell victims to the crimes of russia at 9AM with a minute of silence…
At 15:51 was a BIG BOOM — building shook lightly. It took some seconds before we realized what happened. NOW WE WERE LISTENING. 2nd explosion followed and we leaving everything behind rushed to a basement. It must be the bridge, surely, a man was saying to gasps of people nearby.
There was no connection. Call to check on your parents — no signal. Viber, WhatsApp — nothing. I’m not staying here, I need to make sure they’re okay. As I leave the shelter — smoke was in the air. It must’ve been somewhere close. When I came to Amstor 30 mins after the strike the building was on fire. Hundreds of people treading on shattered glass to see what happened to the place — air alert was off — there was nothing to destroy anymore…
There were hundreds in there! What if they stayed… like me? I stood there feeling the gravity like never before. Eyes fixed on the fire.
As sickening as it sounds, luckily only 20 were lost in the airstrike with 58 injured. Some left when they heard a siren, small shop owners went on a coffee break, while many stayed… Hundreds of kilometers away from a frontline you don’t expect an air strike on a civilian object in the center of your city. You just don’t!
Ihad to leave town for two weeks on the day of the attack on the mall, when I came back, without seeing the place, I could sense it’s presence. It is the smell… that multiplies russian propaganda about alleged storage of NATO supplied ammunition by zero. The smell of death, sorrow and pain of every Kremenchuk citizen. The smell of rotting products — meat, fish, veggies and fruits. Mall housed many both small and big shops including a supermarket. Now hundreds of tons of products that haven’t melted in the fire rot away under the rubble. One month after the strike, the smell is still there.
People walk past the empty shell throwing glances at what was the mall. When you’re in the city you don’t feel the smell anymore, it is when you leave and come back is when you are reminded of the horrors of 27th. With the airstrike came a grim realization that nowhere is safe (except a shelter). Living under constant threat is our new normal.
Since the onset of war there was no doubt Kremenchuk would eventually be targeted. The city, industrial center of Poltava region, is a hometown to Ukrtatnafta oil refinery (the largest in Ukraine), Kremenchuk Carbon Black Plant (the largest producer of carbon black in Ukraine), Kryukiv Railway Car Building Works (one of the largest in Ukraine and of strategic importance), Kremenchuk Automobile Assembly Plant, Kremenchuk Wheel Plant and the bridge which is a key railway junction across Dnipro river.
After living with sirens for one month, Kremenchuk had it’s first ‘прильот’ (air strike) on the2nd of April — oil refinery was hit. The following strikes kept on hitting only the oil refinery, gradually destroying the giant. Still, citizens felt relative safety as the strikes were outside the city. That is, until…
My family owns an office in the center by a maternity hospital some 600 meters away from Amstor. In the building we have an actual bomb shelter and throughout April — June it has seen little interest from public. The first wave was in the first days of war, then, over time, people became habituated to the sirens. They became a daily reminder of a war happening somewhere not in this world. Right after strikes on Ukrtatnafta more people decided not to trust their luck and come to the shelter, but only for a day or two. This is best captured by a local Telegram channels with pictures of cats as residents of Kremenchuk.
Amstor airstrike, horrific as it is, hasn’t and couldn’t have changed this trend. People can’t hide all the time, can’t always put life on hold… Except they do, seconds after another прильот, when the blast and shockwave tells you to run for dear life. Air strikes become a natural part of life… It is like on the morning radio they tell you a weather forecast… Dear citizens, today Kremenchuk is expecting a summery weather, comfy temperature and azure sky. Winds blow westward and the risk of ‘precipitation’ is PERMANENT. Have a great day, don’t ignore sirens and everything will be Ukraine!
