Categories: INTERVIEWS

Witness on Russian missile strike in Sumy: “I started pulling out those who were showing signs of life. But the front third of the bus was jammed with motionless bodies…”

Passenger of the bus destroyed by a Russian missile strike in Sumy: “I started pulling out those who were showing signs of life. But the front third of the bus was jammed with motionless bodies…”

Yevhen Kuzmenko for Censor.NET.

The photos of the charred, destroyed bus from route No. 62 stand out even among the other horrifying images and videos of the double Russian ballistic missile strike on Sumy on April 13.

The pictures were taken some time after the tragedy.

Equally important as the visual evidence are the testimonies of eyewitnesses. One such account was provided, at the request of Censor.NET, by Sumy resident and passenger of that very bus, 69-year-old Volodymyr Boyko.

Volodymyr Boyko. A photo from his life before the war

— I was heading from home to the city center, Volodymyr recalls. For some reason, two trolleybuses of route No. 4 were delayed, so I boarded this bus on route No. 62. There were a lot of people — the bus was packed to the brim.

— Which is no surprise: it was Palm Sunday, late morning, and people were going to churches and cemeteries to tend to graves…

—Yes, and the bus was crowded mostly with elderly people — shoulder to shoulder. Some were going to the market, but most were headed to the Central Cemetery.

I remember how, at the stop near School No. 4, a woman with a small child got on. I asked people to give up their seat. They shifted, the woman sat down with the child, and as a result, I moved from the center toward the back of the bus.

— The bus was approaching the city center from School No. 4 along Petropavlivska Street when you heard the first explosion?

— Yes. People started talking among themselves, wondering whether it was ours or not. We’ve gotten used to these things… Then we saw a big cloud of dust through the windows, coming from the area of the Petropavlivskyi Church. We drove about half a stop further — and then bang! — the second explosion happened. It’s hard for me to describe all the feelings I experienced. Everything started crumbling and collapsing; I realized it was an explosion nearby. But in that first moment — instinctively — I quickly bent down into the space between the seats where the woman and child were sitting — and that saved me. I lowered my head toward them, maybe even wanted to say something — I don’t remember what or how. My head ended up in the space between the seats, and shards of glass rained down on it.

— When you came to your senses a bit, what did you see around you?

— The look on people’s faces was one of absolute shock. Some were wounded, some had collapsed to the side — at that moment, it was hard for me to grasp the full picture because I was in shock myself.

The glass in the doors and windows was already shattered, but the doors themselves wouldn’t open. Some young guy jumped out through one of the broken windows. At first, he instinctively tried to run away, but I shouted to him: “Open the door!” — and he immediately turned back and started pushing.

I was pulling at the doors myself — nothing was working. But when he started pushing from the outside, I saw the doors begin to budge a little. I yelled: “Push, push!” I was covered in blood, it was dripping all over me… But I kept pulling toward myself, he pushed from the outside — and together we managed to open the doors.

People started running out in all directions.

I was afraid the bus would explode any moment and we’d all burn alive. I got out too, and what I saw — it’s hard to put into words. There was a little girl lying dead. A woman was lying nearby with her lower jaw completely torn off. Her eyes were moving — I could tell she was in total shock from the pain.

All around were lifeless bodies, severed limbs… It was horrifying.

The photos were taken some time after the tragedy.

I looked down and saw blood running from my head, covering my face, my jacket… But then I thought: Wait, maybe I can still save someone? I went back to the bus — and there I saw a man, most likely a passerby, because his clothes were clean, not stained with blood.

He was pulling people out of the bus. I started helping too — pulling out the wounded, those who were still showing signs of life.

— Were there many people like that?

— Yes, there were. But the front third of the bus was jammed with motionless bodies. The bus could have exploded, and I realized I might die trying to carry out the dead. So I stepped outside.

Some people came up to me and said, “Sit down here, they’ll take you to the hospital soon.” But I didn’t want to — I felt that my injuries weren’t critical.

I walked a bit uphill along Kondratieva Street and raised my hand, hoping someone would give me a ride. For a while, no one stopped — but finally, a guy driving a minibus with the word “Bread” on it pulled over.

He looked me over from behind, probably to check if I’d stain his vehicle (laughs. — Y.K.), because from the front I was completely covered in blood. He let me in and drove me almost all the way home.

— Let’s thank this good man. What did your wife say when you got home? Did you manage to warn her?

— I thanked him a lot. I called my wife to warn her: “This is what happened, I’m on my way home, I’m alive, and we’ll deal with the rest when I get there.” The driver took me to my place, and Anya ran out to meet me. Then it was hydrogen peroxide and all that.

— And cognac, because the second wave of stress started catching up with you?

— Yes, but that was my own “treatment” (laughs. — Y.K.).

— When you started watching the news about the shelling, looking at photos of “your” bus, how did you feel?

— Oh, Zhenya. I felt such a terrifying experience… I don’t even know. Then I was flooded with calls from friends, acquaintances, and friends of acquaintances: “How are you? How are you? How are you?”

— I’m haunted by the question: what happened to that young mother with the child who was near you?

— I think they’re alive. I was standing next to them, and when it happened, I bent down to them and, in that moment, I hope I shielded them with my body.

What saved me was the glasses my son Anton gave me. Because everything around my eyes was damaged, but my eyes — they’re fine.

— I’ve already called my son, I said: “Anton, thank you for these glasses!”

— Volodymyr, as a native of Sumy, who has experienced both the invasion, street battles, and the siege of 2022, not to mention the tough years since — what would you say to the readers of this interview?

— You know, today dozens of people called me — and they all said the same thing: “We hate them!” There wasn’t a single panicked call like, “It’s all lost, we need to run…” No, dozens of completely different people were repeating one thing: “Bastards! We hate them!”

Ukraine Front Lines