One of the injured Euromaydan protesters: “Militiamen were arresting
everyone in the hospital”
by Tetyana Vygovs’ka
Olexiy was one of the first seriously injured – a flash-bang grenade splinter put out his eye.
Everyone who knew this young
man said he was very easy-going. Olexiy Shatnyuk, a graduate from National
Agricultural University of Bila Tzerkva, was always cheerful and peaceful. But
even such a positive person got fed-up with Ukrainian regime. Olexiy had once
joined Ukrainian Military Forces as a contractor, but after facing all the
chaos in there he withdrew the contract, and lately was working as a pizza
delivery man in Kyiv. When the protests at Maydan started he volunteered into
defense units, and later, when riots took off in Hrushevskogo Street, he ended
up in there. He happened to become one of the first seriously injured
protestors – a splinter of a flash-bang grenade put out his eye. At present he is being treated at Kaunas
Health Clinic (Lithuania) after Lithuanian government had invited him over for
medical treatment.
Olexiy (third to the left)
among his friends on Youth Day in Bila Tzerkva, 2013.
- Olexiy, how did you get to Lithuania for medical treatment?
- Other volunteers from Maydan called me and
said there was a possibility to get treated abroad. After the injury I had no
idea what to do, I was hopeless, I planned on waiting for the riots to end and
only after that apply for disability. And there they called. First, they offered to seek financial help
among friends and relatives, then called Lithuanian Embassy and requested help.
- When you were in Ukrainian hospital, did militia officials visit you, did they inquire where you had got these injuries?
- Yes, militia officials
from Pechers’ky regional department came over. I filed the time, place and
circumstances of the injury. I stated that it was Berkut who threw the grenade.
By the way, it was the militiamen who informed my family about me being
injured. After three days in the hospital I received a phone call from my
friends, they said I’d better not remain in the hospital any further since
militia had started arresting all injured protesters. I followed the advice and went to my sister
overnight without even being discharged from the hospital. The next day, I came
to the hospital to get my documents back. Again, I got lucky – fifteen minutes
after I left militiamen started arresting the injured protesters. No one was
asking when or how an injury happened, they were taking everyone away. I was
just lucky to escape. It was insane, as there were seriously injured patients
as well. I was offered to be evacuated to Western Ukraine, yet I refused. I
kept hiding at my sister’s until the day I moved to Lithuania.
- Have you
paid anything for a Schengen visa?
-
No, everything was taken care of by Lithuanian Embassy. Even the car that took
me to the airport was arranged by the Embassy.
- How many
people were flying with you to Lithuania for medical treatment?
- I am the only one in
Kaunas. There are several people in Vilnius; one of them has bad injuries. Not
only he was bullet-wounded, Berkut also beat him bad. As a result, the person
has severe injuries of internal organs. President of Lithuania came to visit
him immediately upon arrival. Minister of Health of Lithuania visited me and
held meeting with local doctors regarding my further treatment.
-
What kind of treatment are you receiving?
-
Currently I have got a prosthesis; I am getting rehabilitation and drug-induced
therapy. I only have the white part left from my eye, so it is being decided
upon what type of prosthesis I shall be getting. I do not go outside, staying
inside the hospital at all times. I am getting used to the foreign body in my
eye. Now I have a temporary prosthesis, it irritates the orbit, everything
itches inside and I am tempting to rip it out. On the first day it was
impossible to remain quiet, headache was so immense. I even asked the doctors
to remove the prosthesis, but they tried to calm me down, they said it was a
normal reaction of the body.
-
How long will you be staying in Lithuania?
-
I do not know for now. There will be a meeting next Monday (we talked to
Olexiy on February 2nd – aut.), after which I should know for sure
how long my treatment will take. I miss home a little. Women from Ukrainian
society were visiting me too; they said I should stay as a refugee. It was
unusual to observe the doctors’ reaction to that visit. The doctors suggested I
should be very careful and reserved with strangers, because a well-wisher could
be a Security Service agent. I laughed a little, but they responded: “Just
think about how they have found out about you here? From a newspaper?” But
still, I doubt I could be of any interest to Security Service – I am neither an
organizer, nor a leader, I am a simple protester.
- Which
language do you speak to the doctors?
- I speak Ukrainian and
Russian, but the doctors barely understand me – they use Lithuanian and English
here. Only older generations that lived and worked in the times of the USSR
more or less remember Russian.
- How did
you happen to get to Maydan at all?
- I was at Euromaydan from the
very beginning – partaking in defense, protesting at the Head Office of Public
Prosecutor. When not busy, I was always going to the Independence Square. I
never supported any of the political parties, but my friends were in Maydan, so
I could not stay aside.
- Do you
remember the moment you got injured?
- That day I ran to
Hrushevskogo after work. The buses were burning already and I had neither
glasses, nor helmet. It was very scary there – rocks falling down, hammers,
grenades. I was shocked that Berkut were also throwing rocks even though they
were not allowed to. People seemed to be throwing rocks because they needed to
release their anger. I was waiting for something more aggressive from Berkut
and planned to help the protesters after that. Most people did not partake in
the riot. I also did not plan to partake and was about to retreat to a safe
distance when that grenade stunned me. Its splinters put my eye out, one
splinter got stuck in the neck, and legs were wounded. My pants were filled
with splinters. I remember only a flash. Somebody picked me up and took me
away. It took a long time for the ambulance to arrive. In the hospital they let
me know that my eye had all flown out, it was on my cheek.
- Are you learning Lithuanian little by little?
- On elementary level
(laughing): “Hello”, “Thank you”, “Good bye”. I do not know how much more time
I will be here, but I will definitely learn some phrases.
- What do you plan on doing after you return to Ukraine?
- It’s
hard to say, a healthy person has problems with finding a job, what to expect
when you are handicapped. Time will show, yet I do not plan to stay here – I
long for my Motherland.- What do you plan on doing after you return to Ukraine?
Translated to English by Valeria K.
http://blogs.korrespondent.net/pro_users/blog/svidoma3/a131800
