Ingrid Woodbridge: Lives Left Behind: 10 Ukrainian Women in War and Peace

Rita’s ministry focused on hospitality, organizing luncheons during the building phase of the church for all the workers, and hosting groups in her home for Bible study. During this time, Elisey Pronin was already a member of the church. The Baptist church, consisting of about 400 members, organized teams and groups working for the good of the community. Evangelism was a vital part of the church’s ministry. The church also established a rehabilitation ministry and provided humanitarian aid to those in need. They even started a home for orphans.

Rita’s daughter Jana married and had a baby, but continued to attend the medical college. Oksana was still in eleventh grade. Rita recounted that everyone helped to take care of baby Christina – there was a line-up of helpers. Oksana married Elisey in 1999 when she was twenty years old. Elisey was still a student and Oksana worked as a nurse in the local clinic. Everyone had moved to their own apartments, but they all stayed in the same town. Pervomaisk was home, after all. They enjoyed close relationships and stayed in close contact with each another. Rita now has four grandchildren. Jana’s daughters are Christina (born 1992) and Eva (born 2000). Oksana and Elisey have Viola (born 2000) and David (born 2009). When Viola was born, Rita would help every day with the baby. She would walk her granddaughter in the stroller, and Viola would nap at her grandma’s home. Over time, a close relationship developed. Rita and Viola are very close to this day.

At Alexey’s retirement from the church in 2007, their son-in-law, Elisey Pronin, became the senior pastor. The ministry expanded over the next years and the church grew. Rita’s husband stayed on at the church as an elder. Then the war started. There had been political demonstrations in Kyiv for months, since November 2013, but the capital was far away from homey Pervomaisk. Now, however, the conflict had spread to the Eastern regions of Ukraine.

Initially, the war began in the spring of 2014 in Slovyansk, a town far away from Pervomaisk. Everyone in town believed that the war would not come to Pervomaisk, Rita said, because the fighting was really far away, and the conflict would probably soon be over. They told each other not to be afraid; this was just a little uprising, and it would end shortly. No one was ready for what was to happen.

The front came ever closer to Pervomaisk. Soldiers and police appeared overnight, checking documents, questioning pedestrians, stopping vehicles. Elisey decided that his family needed to leave town, so they prepared to evacuate in July 2014. Elisey helped Oksana, Jana, and the younger children to leave town on the train, while the separatists and occupiers arrived with tanks and military equipment.

Rita and Alexey stayed in Pervomaisk, unwilling to leave at this point. Elisey also stayed in his apartment after the successful evacuation of his own family. Rita received a message from the manager at the beauty salon, stating that the salon would open that July day despite the apparent unrest. She called all her customers, explained to them what was happening, but indicated that they still would service the scheduled appointments. Only Rita and one other lady who did manicures arrived for work that day. Rita managed to provide some haircuts and color, but it became increasingly dangerous in town. A nearby explosion shook the floor of the salon as the glass windows vibrated. They quickly closed the salon.

Rita wanted to get home to Alexey. As she was taking a shortcut through the park toward her apartment, she saw airplanes flying across the area and she heard anti-aircraft guns firing. She made it home, frightened, anxious, and disturbed. The next eight days were spent inside, in lockdown. Their building had no basement, so they lay on the floor in the corridor, which had no windows, and endured one air raid after another.

The internet was still working for a few days, so Rita and Alexey could communicate with Elisey in town. He was also hunkered down in his own apartment. Rita and Alexey still had electricity and water for a while. Soon, however, those utilities were turned off. They used a water barrel for a few days. They had a landline, too, which still worked so they were able to call Jana and Oksana several times a day and tell them that they were still alive and healthy. Their daughters told them to go to Jana’s apartment building, which had a big basement; they changed their hiding place and settled into the basement of Jana’s house for the next ten days. Many neighbors and friends joined them in this shelter.

There was constant bombardment outside. It was a difficult, traumatic time, recalled Rita. July turned into August. After ten days, Elisey arrived and told them that in forty minutes they would all leave the basement where they had found shelter and would soon leave the city of Pervomaisk altogether. Forty minutes – that was the timeline for Rita to prepare herself to step into the war-torn outside world. Rita said they had nothing with them. She was wearing a sundress and slippers; she had not packed any clothes. But there was no time to pack anything now; it was simply too dangerous for anyone to go to their own apartments to gather belongings.

Alexey stubbornly declined to leave the basement or seek safety somewhere else. He wanted to stay in this basement and in Pervomaisk. He asked Elisey for some money to make it through the next few days. But Elisey reasoned with him. Rita said she doesn’t even remember what they were talking about. She did not interfere at first. Was there even a plan? What was going on outside the building? One thing that became clear was that there was absolutely no city transportation available for any kind of evacuation, absolutely none. Alexey still did not want to leave the city and abandon all their possessions. Rita persuaded him to at least go to Elisey’s apartment and make further plans. So, the first stop of their escape route was Elisey’s apartment.

As Rita and Alexey arrived, Elisey’s parents were arriving, too. Additionally, Alexey’s parents also came to Elisey’s apartment. It was a large group. Rita remembered rummaging through their valuables, assessing how much money they had. Alexey still wanted to stay and keep the money to survive for a while. Rita finally yelled at him, and Alexey decided that maybe it was best to evacuate, after all.

Using Elisey’s car, they all drove to the church to meet the others who would evacuate with them. Everyone there was in a panic. The people were told that within two hours, a cease fire would be in effect, and the convoy could leave. The group had to wait till late into the afternoon. Elisey was organizing cars to drive his church members out of Pervomaisk.

Elisey described the evacuation efforts in this way in his book: [5] Ibid., 143.

We continued to inform people, relatives, Christians, friends. We needed drivers. We needed vehicles. There were no communications. It was very hard to gather people together. The brothers were rushing around the city. Of course, any kind of movement around the city was potentially deadly. Any second there could be a bomb explosion. On every road intersection there were gunmen, who had the authority to shoot or grab you… The city was deathly empty. All cars were being expropriated and taken by terrorists for their own purposes. By the mercies of God… we remained unnoticed and unharmed. We gathered near School #1. We completely packed the vehicles with people. There was no room for anybody to take anything with them. There was nothing more valuable than human life.

Rita recalled that, finally, the convoy was indeed allowed to leave the city while the cease fire took effect. Rita remembered that she was in a black Jeep for this part of her escape. Belongings had to be left behind, as every spare inch was needed to transport people out of the war zone. The convoy drove directly to the Ukrainian territory, never stopping along the way, for it was simply too dangerous. Arriving in safety, she met many of her friends from Pervomaisk. They all exchanged stories of what they had witnessed and experienced. The big question now was: How was life to continue, now that they had left their lives behind and could not return to their home town? The local people helped the refugees in many practical ways, with shelter, food, some clothing.