A Russian bullet took their son. How a family from Kyiv Oblast continues to live after the loss

On March 9, 2022, the Mahdyk family lost their son, 12-year-old Vladyslav. He died during an evacuation from Bucha Raion of Kyiv Oblast. The Russian military opened fire on the family's car. One bullet hit the cabin: first, it hit the eldest daughter Ania, and then her brother. The boy died in the car, and the girl was saved. After the loss of their son, the parents, Olha and Valerii, decided to adopt a boy. Sasha, a 12-year-old from Chernihiv Oblast, will live in their family.

The birth of the Mahdyk family

Olha and Valerii Mahdyk were waiting for their first child for a long time and were thinking about adopting a child. Their relatives discouraged them. Their first child came 12 years after their marriage – Ania was born in 2006. At the end of 2008, the parents found out that they were expecting another child. On July 1, 2009, their son was born.

“The first month I called him Misha. I really liked this name. But Valerii's father Mykhailo died, and my mother-in-law advised me not to name the child that way,” says Olha Mahdyk.

The boy was named Vladyslav. He grew up capricious and demanding, needing his parents' attention. But they were not bothered by the kid's whims – they were busy with their parenting.

Life until February 24, 2022

The Mahdyks lived in the village of Havrylivka, Bucha Raion, Kyiv Oblast. Their home was noisy. They celebrated holidays with a lot of relatives and friends. The family went on vacation together – skiing, lying on the beach.

Vladyslav, his mother recalls, grew up smart: “If we gave our son a task, he would ask: ‘How long will it take?’ He tried to do everything quickly so that he could go about his business.”

Vladyslav liked to be the first in everything. He said that in the future he would be able to achieve more than his parents. The boy was also called a goal-oriented boy at school.

“Vlad was a good student. He would do whatever you asked. I remember him saying that he wanted to become president. He wanted to be a driver of change,” says class teacher Lidiia Starovoit.

The boy had many friends. He often took more pocket money from his parents to treat his friends to pizza or something else tasty. He was fond of computers, was good with technology, and loved games. He told his mother that he would become a millionaire thanks to these games.

“Sincere eyes, smiling, with a big soul. Kind, responsive, like the sun,” hisrelative Oksana Liuta remembers Vladyslav as such.

The boy was friends with her two sons. The families lived nearby.

After February 24, 2022

On the first day of the full-scale war, February 24, 2022, Valerii and Olha Mahdyk went to work. The mother quickly returned home from Bucha, where she worked as a chief accountant. Together with the children, they took food, candles, and icons to the basement. When they heard explosions, they hid there.

In the evening, the family discussed what to do next. Her father said that he would not leave Kyiv Oblast: he had a job, a home, two dogs, and two cats. Ania did not agree to go anywhere without her father.

“The next day I counted 170 enemy tanks moving past Havrylivka. I called all my relatives, and they told me that there were already cars in the region that had been shot up. They also told me not to go anywhere and that it was dangerous,” says Olha Mahdyk.

Hostomel and Bucha are located near Havrylivka. The Mahdyks heard explosions all the time. Ania and Vlad, the parents recall, began to go down to the basement less often.

“They got used to everything that was happening. I was scared for them,” recalls Olha Mahdyk.

In March, the family tried to leave Havrylivka three times. They were stopped by relatives and neighbors. The Mahdyks had everything they needed to live in the village: food, a generator, and a stove.

“The night of March 9 was terrible. Cars were exploding nearby. I did not sleep well. The constant tension made my fear even stronger. Then my mother-in-law called me: the last bridge in neighboring Rakivka was being blown up, the rest had already been destroyed. We had little time to leave,” Olha recalls.

On the morning of March 9, Olha woke up the children. With Ania and Vlad, she was going to get out of Kyiv Oblast through Rakivka. Her son had a hard time waking up and did not want to get up.

“I told him several times: 'Son, get up, we have to go'. He wanted to take all his computer stuff in his backpack. But I told him that we had to cross the river – we couldn't do that. He left his things in my car. That's where they stayed,” says Olha.

The Mahdyks got into Valerii's Volkswagen. He planned to give his family a ride to Rakivka and return home.

Departure on March 9

Meanwhile, Oksana Liuta and her sons were hiding in the school basement of the Havrylivka school. They had previously agreed with the Mahdyks that if they were leaving, they would take her and the children with them.

“That morning, Olia said: ‘Get ready quickly, we're going to leave.’ We took our backpacks and documents. I remember Vlad's eyes – brown, round, sincere. I will never forget his look when we got into the car. He was waiting for my boys to talk to them,” Oksana Liuta recalls.

The Mahdyks, Oksana, and her sons followed Olha's mother to Rakivka. The couple sat in front. Vlad, Ania, Oksana, and her sons Nikita and Yaroslav sat behind. About 10 minutes later, Russian soldiers ran out to the car.

“It happened very quickly. Maybe ten seconds. Olia was screaming that they are running at us with their guns pointed at us. Valera turned the car around,” Oksana recalls.

“Lie down on the floor,” Olha shouted.

“Before I could get down, I heard a sound like a tin can being pierced in a shooting range. It was a shot at a car – with a dull sound, a strong echo,” says Oksana Liuta.

She smelled blood. Fluff came out of Ania's jacket, and she began to choke. The adults realized that she had been shot. Oksana took off her scarf and clamped the wound.

“Hold on!” she shouted to her daughter.

And she was breathlessly saying: “Vladik, Vladik...”

The boy was leaning forward. The adults thought that he was hiding from bullets.

Valerii arrived at his home in a matter of minutes. He took his son out of the car and put him in the summer kitchen.

“I was looking for a pulse. The boy did not regain consciousness,” says Oksana.

Olha was at the side of wounded Ania. She took off her shoes and undressed her.

“My daughter put the phone down and said: ‘Give this phone to one friend of mine and this one to the other. Because I'm probably going to die, Mom.’ I ran out to the summer kitchen, and my husband said that our son was gone,” Olha Mahdyk recalls.

The bullet entered Ania's back near her spine and exited near her stomach. Vladyslav was hit on the right side. The parents recall that their son did not even scream in the car. He passed away quietly.

A trip with their daughter

“It's a good thing I didn't lie down next to Vlad there,” says Olha Mahdyk.

She pulled herself together, got behind the wheel of the car, put wounded Ania in, and said she would make her way to Bucha to see a doctor. She was afraid of losing her daughter as well.

“I took my bag and documents. Ania was wearing slippers. In Lubianka, the Kadyrov's men stopped us. They said they would not let us through. I got down on my knees and screamed: ‘Kill me, kill my daughter. I will not go back.’ I told them that there was a wounded girl in the cabin,” Olha Mahdyk recalls.

The Russian military ordered them to follow. The car was jumping on the hills, and Ania was moaning. The occupiers took the family to their point in the forest. There, among many tents, there were medical tents, and Ania was operated on.

“After the surgery, they said they would send my daughter to Russia. Alone. I begged and cried a lot. I told them I had lost my son, and they finally allowed me to go with her,” the woman recalls.

Olha and her operated daughter Ania were to go to Belarus. Until the night of March 10, they were in a bomb shelter at the Hostomel airport because of the shelling. At three in the morning, a helicopter was sent.

“My daughter was recovering after anesthesia. It was cold,” Olha recalls.

Meanwhile, her son was being prepared for his funeral. Valerii dug the grave himself at the Havrylivka cemetery at gunpoint. The occupiers allowed only him to bury his son.

Decision on adoption

Olha and Ania spent a month in Belarus and then left for Berlin, where Olha's mother had evacuated. In June 2022, Olha returned – it was difficult for Valerii to be alone in Havrylivka. Ania and her grandmother stayed in Germany.

“I could not accept and believe that I had lost my son. Only when I came to the grave did I realize that Vlad was gone,” says Olha Mahdyk.

The Mahdyks' house was empty. Ania did not want to return home. She liked it in Berlin. Gradually, the couple's opinion grew stronger: they should adopt a child.

“When my son died, I immediately realized that I would do this. I wanted to do this when I didn't have children of my own. But you know, then I wouldn't have been able to love a child that much,” says Olha Mahdyk.

In the summer of 2022, the couple was preparing for adoption. They wanted to give a family to a boy and a girl who had lost their parents in the war. But, according to Olha, there were no such children on the Syritstvu.ni platform. The couple chose a boy from Chernihiv Oblast, who is a year younger than their Vlad.

Sasha's adoption process lasted almost a year.

Olha said: “If I hadn't been doing this purposefully, I might not have had the strength. It was difficult and long, but we didn't give up.”

The last adoption hearing took place on March 20. Then the Mahdyks gave the child the clothes and a tablet they had bought for him.

“When Sasha comes home from school, he calls us. He tells us how the day went. If we are going somewhere, we use Viber to show him Havrylivka, Bucha, and other towns and villages where he will live,” says Olha.

Olha and Valerii are to take 12-year-old Oleksandr home on April 21. The couple told him about their son Vlad, who was killed by the Russian occupiers.

“One day Sasha asked, ‘Are you taking me because Vlad died?’ We answered: ‘No, we would definitely take you, but not so soon. We've always dreamed of adopting a child’,” Olha says.

The text was prepared by the Memorial memory platform that tells the stories of civilians killed by Russia and Ukrainian soldiers killed by Russia, especially for hromadske. To report data on Ukraine's losses, please fill out the forms for fallen military and civilian victims.

Author: Natalia Kulidi