'Everyone who was nearby died': a Buryat woman spent several hours under the rubble of a building bombed by the Russians

A native of the Irkutsk region, Ayuna Morozova, came under shelling in Kharkov and survived, reports Baikaljournal.

Photo: Shutterstock

Ayuna Morozova, 34, has a Buryat mother and a Ukrainian father. Ayuna was born in the Irkutsk region. Until the age of four, she lived with her parents in Buryatia and Transbaikalia. Then the family moved to Ukrainian Kharkov. Morozova was engaged in water polo, was a member of the Ukrainian national team. For the past few years, she has been heading the specialized children's and youth sports school of the Olympic reserve "Spartak" in Kharkov. Ayuna is also the head coach of the regional swimming team.

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After the start of the Russian “special operation” in Ukraine, Morozova decided not to leave Kharkov. She managed to send her son (he has a double Buryat-Ukrainian name - Erdeni-Luka) to Europe. Ayuna herself and her husband Andrey became volunteers in the Kharkiv regional administration - like dozens of other citizens. Volunteers made sandwiches, prepared tea and coffee for the defense fighters. On March XNUMX, a shell hit the administration building. Ayuna miraculously survived. She told us what she went through.

“I arrived at the administration in the morning. They started making coffee in the dining room on the first floor. There was one man in the room with me and six more people just outside the door. Then suddenly - a flash, my incredible scream. Although I'm usually very reserved. I grouped myself and covered my head with my hands. Then I regained consciousness - I realized that I was lying under the rubble, I couldn’t really move. Water is flowing somewhere, my back and legs are wet. I fell down. Then it turned out - two meters,” says the woman.

“As an athlete, I felt myself and realized that I was intact. There are some abrasions and pain. But in principle there is no serious damage. I burst into tears. It was probably hysterical. It was burning, it was dark, it seemed to me that there was not enough air. It smelled of concrete, earth, and also cookies—we had boxes of cookies in the closet. Started screaming. Then - pray to all the gods she knew. Again she cried, screamed, tried to pull herself together. The rescuers heard me. They began to clear the rubble, but then there was a second blow to the building, to the upper floors. And we fell even lower. The guys who came to save me died. Everyone who was in the room and nearby died, except me,” says Ayuna.

“Then I woke up a second time. I realized that I couldn’t move at all. Only the right leg rests on something wooden. I started knocking there because I couldn’t do anything else. She prayed again, rejoicing that her son was not in this country. She called her husband. I heard that rescuers were walking, but they couldn’t hear me. I was very afraid to die there,” says the woman.

Her phone was constantly ringing, but she could not reach her pocket. Three hours passed - they were like an eternity for her. And her cry was heard by one rescuer.

“By that time I had probably switched to ultrasound, to squealing. This rescuer's name is Zhenya. I want to find him and thank him. Zhenya talked to me while they were digging me up. It was about forty minutes. I remember he asked what my name was. I was able to say: Anya. Then it became easier to breathe, and I said my full name: Ayuna,” the woman said. “There was a man walking up there.” His voice was very similar to the voice of my husband Andrey. I asked Zhenya to describe this man to me. Yes, it seemed to be Andrey. Then Zhenya told him: “Andrey, there is a girl named Ayuna lying here.” The husband screamed.”

Rescuers said that it would be difficult to get Ayun, because he was heavily covered with pieces of concrete. But Andrei said that he would dig it up anyway. He is very physically strong. And I was able to move these pieces. She got out of there on her own. Doctors and rescuers insisted on hospitalization. She was said to be in shock. But then they examined her in an ambulance and said that Ayuna could legally celebrate her second birthday on the first of March. In addition to an insane amount of bruises, abrasions and small cuts, there was nothing else on her.

“I still don’t know how to react to all this. This is inhumane. There were many civilians in the administration building. There people were simply pouring tea and preparing food. And a lot of people died. Now I have attacks of insane hatred for everything Russian. We cannot talk about any fraternal peoples. We're not brothers anymore,” she says. — Kharkov has always been a Russian-speaking city. There was never a problem with people speaking Russian. I myself have always spoken Russian, although I know Ukrainian. I traveled a lot around the country and to Western Ukraine and did not encounter any complaints about the Russian language.”

Ayuna was very proud of the fact that she was half Buryat. She even sewed national costumes in such a modern style. She does not speak Buryat, but she understands something. She has a Buryat dictionary at home.

“But after the first of March I’m unlikely to ever fly to Buryatia. This point of no return has occurred. I am ashamed that such an incredible nation with a rich culture sends children to Ukraine. What are they fighting for? I have always read Buryat public pages, but now they write such comments that I am shocked. You know nothing about Ukraine, you have never been here, but you allow yourself to teach us. You are fighting against me - Buryats against Buryats. And for what? For the Russian language, for Orthodoxy, for a united nation?” the woman asks.

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She quarreled with relatives in Buryatia.

“The Buryats think that they are liberating us. This is some kind of cosmic idiocy. I have many friends in Russia, and they write about Bandera and the Nazis. But our country's president is a Jew. What Nazis? We’re crazy,” she says.

On February 24, she woke up from a call from a friend who was in Kyiv. She was waiting for the plane to take off at nine o'clock. It was about five in the morning, she was screaming and crying that "they started bombing us." Ayuna half-awake did not believe.

Said she wasn't quite herself. But then she heard the explosions herself.

“I can’t put into words this state when you don’t believe, but your brain understands that there is a bombing going on. In the 21st century, in a Russian-speaking city of three million, we are being bombed,” said Ayuna.

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