A basic medical assessment is likely to reveal a severe psychological trauma in Lila Sergueyevna Ogneva, a resident of Dytiatky, a small community of about five hundred people on the edge of the Exclusion Zone near the Chernobyl power plant. She is experiencing deep emotional distress, barely able to walk without pausing, smoking a cigarette one after another, and with fingers that tremble to the point of not being able to tap a proper app on her phone. She speaks in a faint whisper, words unclear, and her confusion is evident as she wonders what to do or where to seek help.
In this case, emotional numbness has shadowed Lilac since the war began. Hours after the Kremlin offensive started, she lost her husband Victor and her son Dimitri in the same day. Their family home, a short distance away along a nearby road, became a scene of tragedy. Around five in the afternoon the same day, a metropolitan vehicle belonging to a Russian convoy entered Ukrainian territory, collided with the vehicle they were traveling in, and opened fire immediately. Moments later the attacking vehicle veered away, violently veering the victims’ truck off the road into a ditch, and crushing it under its weight.
“I don’t know what happened; the vehicle seemed upgraded, and perhaps its headlights blinded us,” Lila explains in a whisper. Photos kept in her phone memory show the bodies of her husband and son, scenes no one should ever have to witness. The corpses were left on the road for a day, abandoned amid the war, with rescue only arriving the next day when her father-in-law Anatolii brought a tractor and risked everything to recover them. “Everything happened suddenly, about 300 meters from an entry checkpoint,” Lilac says. “I had to hide the car because the Russians might have found it…” explains Anatolii, the victim’s father.
Lila does not know how to face the immediate future. “My husband worked with a tractor inside the Exclusion Zone, and he was the one who brought the salary home.” She has a daughter to care for and a home with a small family plot and a loving dog, all now overshadowed by this family tragedy. At present, she receives no pension or financial assistance from any government agency and waits for the moment to return to the city to search for work. “You have to rebuild your life first, then I will look for something; anything. I have no money for tickets,” she admits.
crushed pickup truck
A complaint to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office will not be enough for Lila, who is willing to work with informants and return to Dytiatky to the remains of her mother-in-law’s house, where the wrecked van has since been scavenged for scrap. There is also the matter of pursuing a possible war crime. “No financial compensation will bring my son back,” Anatolii swears, leaning on two crutches as he speaks. The mother of the deceased cannot bear the scene and must leave as soon as the tarpaulin is removed from the vehicle and the roof and seat are exposed.
Lila remains still, looking down, finishing her cigarette. Those responsible for the attack are said to have been part of the first Russian armored assault on the area, which was shattered while trying to seize the town of Ivankiv a few kilometers south. Yet that knowledge offers little comfort amid the ongoing grief.