Ukrainian → English transcript

Military enlistment officers shot at people. It happened in Volyn, in the village of Novi Chervyshcha, in the Kamin-Kashyr area.

He shot at me five or six times.

In your direction or right at you?

Right at me. And at the other one, the neighbor, he hit her here in the cheek. And they took her to the hospital; I don't know if they'll have to cut it out. Well, of course they'll remove it.

The start of this story is banal. Two cars were driving around the village.

I went out, and there they were; one young guy was driving. He's disabled; he's not fit to fight.

He was driving, and I yell, "Vova, run, the enlistment officers are coming." But he didn't hear.

And a black van--it's driving--and the black van is driving, and it, like, cut him off.

And a gray, shiny car also drives up to them, and two get out of the van and two from that car, and they throw his bicycle over there, where a horse is grazing now, throw his bicycle, and they grab him, twist his arms, and shove him into the van.

Ms. Nina says that pensioners, women, and children stayed in the village; she could not stand aside.

My grandson went from the very first days; the TCC men took him too, and at 24 he was killed at Kupiansk.

They caught my son the same way as that boy; two little kids were in the car, and for two days, two full days, the children could not come to their senses that their father had been taken.

And my son-in-law, from the very first days my son-in-law has been fighting too; he has been through this whole war.

I stand up for people, I stand up for the boys; as long as I live, I will stand up for them.

The woman says they hadn’t talked beforehand, hadn’t checked any documents; it all began with the use of force. There was even one police officer.

He carries a paper with him stating that he is unfit for this because he is disabled. He says, guys, I have a paper like that, which means you have no right to take me.

They didn’t listen, threw his bicycle aside, and overpowered him.

The woman raised a fuss; she and a neighbor stood in the middle of the road.

We were just standing there on the asphalt, and they came straight at us. We veered a little and also started throwing stones at them.

And they drove up here, hit the brakes, and the driver got out, then the other one, and the second one started shooting.

The distance was up to ten meters. There were no warning shots into the air. The women, who are almost 70 years old, don’t know about weapons. The shots were muffled.

The one who shot even says to me, “I’ll remember you. As long as I live, I’ll remember you, once and for all.” And he pointed a finger at me.

When they saw the bleeding, they piled into the cars and took off to flee, with the abducted passenger in the cabin.

I only went out after I heard the shot. I already knew she was coming from over there toward home. She was bleeding like a stuck pig.

The blood only started coming out later. They floored it so hard that gravel shot out from under the wheels.

So they didn’t stay, didn’t render aid, didn’t call an ambulance?

What ambulance? They didn’t care how it was supposed to be.

And who called the ambulance?

The neighbor.

The ambulance and the police arrived almost right away.

They pulled that bullet out of her and are keeping her for further treatment. We’ll see what happens with the further treatment. They put in a very large suture.

Late that evening after the operation, Liubov Fedotivna—the injured woman—was able to speak.

They stitched it up. They made two incisions. First they cut in one spot and pulled it out, then they cut that thing in another.

And then they gave an injection; my blood pressure had already gone up, I could barely hear what they were saying, but from what I could hear I added a little.

The man the women tried to free has had a hard life. He lives alone on the village outskirts, in an old house that doesn’t even belong to him.

He lost his parents early. It all happened, he says, in an instant.

One takes my bicycle, two throw me into the van.

They only started asking for documents once the man was inside, and there was already gunfire behind the car.

I said, my details were left on the bicycle. You threw me into the van like livestock.

I always carry my certificate because I’m disabled. My right leg is shorter than my left by four centimeters. I even have a metal implant in my leg.

The man gets around the village by bicycle because walking is hard due to his injury.

The police and a military recruitment officer are running my data on a tablet and on a phone.

Tell me, please, did all this already happen after they shot at the women?

After that. I said, you’re already the seventh one who’s stopped me.

But never with such brazenness, such discourtesy, such treatment.

The man says they took him half a kilometer from the village and told him to walk. They wanted to see the disability firsthand. They left him there.

They maimed my finger.