She lost her child after being wounded in Yahidne: story of a Chernihiv woman whose rescue was a miracle

Viktoriia Radchenko, 34, from Chernihiv, says that before the full-scale Russian invasion, she had everything: a cozy home, her own garden, and a beloved husband with whom she raised her son, Vladyslav, and was expecting a daughter.

The woman's first pregnancy occurred in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and invaded Donbas. The second was in 2022 when the war took on new dimensions. The war crossed out everything: the woman lost her child after the occupation in the village of Yahidne in the Chernihiv region.

Now Viktoriia has a first-degree disability and is desperately fighting to return to her normal life. She continues to dream of having a daughter. Read more about the challenges she faced and the way she overcame them in the hromadske article.

“We didn't believe and didn't prepare”

Viktoriia admits that neither she nor her husband believed in the possibility of war. In February 2022, she was on maternity leave, expecting her second child.

“We did not believe and did not prepare. When we heard the explosions in Chernihiv, like many citizens, we thought it would be just for a few days. So we decided to go to my husband's parents in Yahidne near Chernihiv,” she recalls.

When the Russians entered Yahidne on March 1, the woman was trapped with the rest of the residents.

“Since those days, I remember the constant explosions; I remember the Russians saying that no one would help us; how they came under the influence of drugs and shot at the cellar door with a machine gun, opening it; how my son knelt, asking the soldiers not to kill his grandfather," says Viktoriia.

“Our lives hung on the thread”

When the Russian soldiers came to their yard and ordered them to go to school, the family asked for permission to stay in the cellar. The military agreed, as there were many people — eleven, including two children.

Viktoriia's mother-in-law wore white bandages and cooked for her family literally at gunpoint. The men repeatedly told the occupiers that they had children and a pregnant woman with them, but this did not affect their attitude.

“No one went outside, they only allowed us to go 1-2 meters away, near the cellar to breathe in the air. There were no walks, we didn't go inside the house,” recalls Viktoriia Radchenko.

At the same time, the occupiers allowed themselves to use the house to the fullest. Several times, military vehicles entered the yard. They didn't even open the gate, they just kicked it in. They parked their vehicles near the porch and took everything they liked out of the house. If they couldn't take it away for some reason, they would deliberately damage it.

From time to time, Tuvans would visit the yard, threatening to shoot and bringing mines. When they came again one day, the Russians came running to the noise in the yard.

“Our lives hung on the thread, but the Russians took the Tuvans at gunpoint and took them outside, saying they would have a separate conversation with them. However, an hour later, one of the three men who had been taken away ran into our yard. He was carrying a grenade,” the woman says.

After this incident, the family asked to go to the basement of the school to be together with other villagers and feel united. But the military personnel refused.

Day of loss

March 19 will always remain a day of loss for Viktoriia and her family. Two years ago, the weather was sunny and warm on this day. Adults and children came out of the cellar to get some air. Viktoriia and the children sat down near the house.

At that time, they heard dull explosions — Viktoriia’s father-in-law told me to go back to the cellar. The next moment, an explosion occurred in the yard. Viktoriia managed to lie down next to the cellar, but the wall of the house fell on her.

Her father-in-law was killed immediately, and another relative, Hennadii Donets, had his leg seriously injured by the explosion. The woman recalls that her husband and sister tried to take her to the cellar, but she could not feel her legs, her body was cut by shrapnel.

They couldn’t call an ambulance. The Russians took the victims and drove them away in an unknown direction.

For some reason, they said in Yahidne that Viktoriia was sent to a hospital in Belarus. But they did not cross the border. The woman was accompanied by her sister Zoriana.

The sisters had neither cell phones nor money and only had their passports with them. It was only a month later, when volunteers gave them a phone, that they were able to contact their families.

According to Zoriana, they were first transported under fire along a dirt road and crossed a pontoon bridge.

“During heavy shelling, the car would stop, and all the soldiers would hide in the woods and wait out the shelling, while we were left alone inside the car and said goodbye to each other, realizing that the next second could be the last in our lives,” she recalls.

Viktoriia would occasionally lose consciousness and bleed. The path to salvation, as it is now understood, went through the village of Vyshneve in the Ripky community, where the headquarters of the Russian troops was located. There, in a field hospital, Viktoriia received first aid and was sent by military helicopter to Russia.

In Bryansk hospital, Viktoriia's pregnancy was diagnosed as a stillbirth — the child died. The woman was diagnosed with polytrauma with spinal injuries and fractures of the thoracic vertebrae, spinal cord contusion, and multiple soft tissue injuries with metal fragments in her body.

Later, Zoriana was able to get to her sister. As soon as Viktoriia's condition stabilized, with the help of volunteers, they were able to travel to Estonia, and then to Switzerland, where she underwent treatment and rehabilitation in Zurich thanks to benefactors.

Zoriana returned to Ukraine in October, and Viktoriia returned in November 2022. The woman was granted a first-degree disability for general illness.

“I was very indignant because the disease was the result of direct military action. Later, however, it was recognized that the cause of the disability was an injury from explosive objects. But today, my sister continues her treatment and rehabilitation, looking for any opportunity to alleviate her condition and be able to fully raise her son,” Zoriana emphasizes.

Her son has matured a lot

Now Viktoriia lives with her family in Chernihiv and continues to fight, as the injuries she received and the stress she experienced have seriously affected her health. She now has constant pain in her shoulders, a limp, scars all over her body, and several fragments inside.

Her recovery is gradual, but she feels better than when she “couldn't turn around in bed for four months, my sister fed me with a spoon, and it took up to two hours to dress my wounds in the hospital.”

The woman regularly works with rehabilitation therapists. She says she does it for her son. The boy, named after his grandfather, had a very painful experience of his loss and separation from his mother, who were emotionally the closest people to him. The boy was being prepared for the return of his mother, who was in a wheelchair at the time.

“When I look at my son, I see a child, but there is such a deep adult sadness in his eyes,” the woman notes.

Despite her experience, Viktoriia dreams of returning to work to school, and having a daughter.

“I want to look forward, thank God for another chance at life, and hope that my dreams come true,” she admits.

Author: Iryna Synelnyk