She lived as her museum: in Sviatohirsk, a Russian projectile killed the director of the reserve

In Sviatohirsk, Donetsk region, the director of the Sviatohirsky historical and architectural reserve Svitlana Sharaban and her sister Olena died during the offensive of Russian troops. The sister’s husband was seriously injured. He was later found in a hospital in occupied Donetsk.

Svetlana lived by her work

Svitlana Sharaban did not leave Sviatohorsk and her native museum until the end. She worked here for about thirty years, starting as a junior researcher, then managed funds, and then became the director of the reserve.

“We worked with Svitlana a long time ago in the Kharkiv Historical Museum, we sat in the same room. Since then, we became friends. Svitlana then resigned and went to Sviatohirsk to live with her parents. But we did not lose contact, we called each other, once with former colleagues we came to she was visiting. She showed us Sviatohirsk, the house of Zasyadka, after whom one of the mines is named. She lived with her parents, they were very nice people.

When mom and dad passed away, Svitlana lived alone, but her sister lived nearby with her husband and children. She was literally a second mother to her nephews,” her old friend Valentina Osykovska remembers about her. Every time Svitlana Sharaban came to Kharkiv and brought exhibits for restoration, she always visited the Kharkiv Historical Museum, met Valentina Osykovskaya, and other former colleagues.

“She lived by her work. She often brought paintings and museum furniture to us for restoration, our employee went to them and restored the model of the Sviatohirskaya Lavra. She was very meticulous, principled to herself, loved ones, and at work as well. It was not for nothing that she was elected director more than once reserve”, Tamara Zybina, the custodian of the funds of the Kharkiv branch of the National Research and Restoration Center, remembers about her.

Svetlana was also a needlewoman. She graduated from cutting and sewing courses. “She sewed a wonderful dress for her sister. And she knitted very well. She once knitted herself a luxurious white suit, which encouraged our colleagues to learn to knit as well,” says Osykovska.

She also recalls that during her school years, Svetlana was called “Kitty” after the heroine of the film “Anna Karenina”, who was then played by Vertynskyi’s daughter. She looked a lot like this actress.

“We hope to stay alive” During the war, life in Sviatohirsk was difficult and dangerous. The city was often shelled by the invaders. Then the Sviatohirsk Lavra was damaged, the monks died. The museum was also damaged, several floors of the building were destroyed. Svitlana Sharaban with her sister Olena and her husband were constantly hiding in the basement of the house. 

“One word – scary! The laurel is broken. Our museum was also damaged, the windows and doors were broken. Our beautiful stained glass windows on historical themes were broken. We did it for five years, one hall at a time. And here one second is all. The laurel is in the same condition , we will have to restore it for several years. Thousands of windows and doors have been broken there. Our bridge has been destroyed, we are cut off. There are no products, no medicines either,” Svitlana described the situation to her acquaintance, with whom she also worked at the Kharkiv Museum, Victoria Filonenko.

Victoria says that Svitlana literally collected her museum piece by piece, piece by piece, year after year. And now all this is destroyed. She hoped for the best, wrote that she had bought a dress for herself in the spring and really hoped to wear it to visit her nephew Andriy in Kharkiv, to his new apartment, to see his renovations. “At home, it’s scary, I work remotely with all employees as much as possible. We are waiting for a battle, there may be no communication and light. We hope to stay alive with God’s help,” she wrote on April 12.

And she last wrote to Valentina Osykovska on April 10. She asked to pray for the defenders of “Azovstal”. “Pray, relatives, the assault on Azovstal has begun! The boys are asking for prayers.” And sent many texts of prayers. I still read them,” her former colleague cries.

Then the connection with her disappeared.

They didn’t make it to the church

The battles in Sviatohirsk became more and more brutal, Russian artillery struck. In the end, the director of the reserve and her sister and her husband decided to move to an area called “Sakhalin”. There was a church there, they were going to hide there.

On June 5, they were driving a car with a trailer. Then the Russians captured the city. One of the shells exploded next to the car. Svetlana and sister Olena died on the spot, Vyacheslav was thrown out by the blast wave, he remained alive. The car was completely burnt.

“Since May, my messages to Svitlana have not been read, I felt something bad. Our mutual friend Lyudmila Krasilnikova wrote to me: “Viko, the war has caught up with us, Svitlana has died.” That’s how I found out that she was gone,” recalls Viktoriya Filonenko .

Later, Vyacheslav found himself in a hospital in occupied Donetsk. And the bodies of Svetlana and Elena were probably somewhere in the morgue. They were buried only on October 7, after the Armed Forces liberated the city from the invaders on September 12. Many acquaintances still hoped for a miracle that Svetlana would be found, although wounded, but alive. Unfortunately, the miracle never happened.

In the temporarily occupied Mariupol, the death rate increased approximately four to five times, compared to the pre-war period. Now people also die every day, children are hardly born. This was reported by the press service of the city council. “About 150 people die in Mariupol every week. That is, almost 25 people every day. Children are almost born. The city is dying under occupation,” the message reads.

Also, according to the chairman’s office, only 5-6 children are born in the city every week, although before the full-scale invasion of Russia, about 50 children were born. We will remind, at the Mariupol cemetery in the village of Old Crimea appeared in a new sector of mass graves. People who died at the hands of the Russian occupiers are buried there. The adviser to the chairman of Mariupol said that after the retreat from Kherson, the occupiers turned Mariupol into a crossroads of rotations.

“Children are hardly born, almost 25 people die every day”: Mariupol is dying under the occupation – city council 

About 150 people die in Mariupol every week. That is, almost 25 people every day. Children are hardly born. The city is dying under occupation. 

This is reported by the Mariupol City Council 

About 5-6 children are born every week in the occupied city. In comparison, before the full-scale invasion of the Russians, about 50 babies were born every week in Mariupol, Ukraine. The death rate has increased four to five times compared to the pre-war period. So the Russians brought death and hopelessness with them. Faith in only one thing – the return of Mariupol under the Ukrainian flag.

Last day, the Russian occupying forces attacked the Donetsk region 14 times. 10 settlements were under fire. In particular, the cities of Avdiivka and Bakhmut. TV channel correspondent Alyona Gramova told about this on November 14 live. According to her, recently the Russians are increasingly attacking the city of Kurakhove in the Marinsky direction. There, 7 residential high-rise buildings, a hospital and an administrative building were damaged. These are the data of the National Police. In the Volnovasky direction, the Russians do not stop shelling Vugledar.

Also, the Donetsk direction — Avdiivka, Horlivskyi, Bakhmutskyi and the city of Bakhmut itself — remain hot. Today, for the first time in the building of the press service of the head of the region, there were no dead, but there are injured.

As for the de-occupied settlements, life is returning there, but these territories are subject to Russian shelling. The camera crew of the TV channel visited the city of Svyatohirsk. More than 80% of the infrastructure there was destroyed.

As Gramova noted, it is easier to count surviving objects than those that are destroyed or damaged. About 500 people remain in the city. According to local residents, in the last months after the liberation of the city, they began to go down to the shelter less and less, but again a new shelling, and people thought about the fact that they still need to go to the shelter during the air raid alarms. Restoration work on energy supply has begun in Sviatohirsk. There will be no gas there due to a broken gas pipeline, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of Donetsk Regional Military Administration. The situation is not easy, especially for residents of multi-apartment buildings. Residents of the private sector have the opportunity to heat themselves, there is firewood.

The city is assisted by local authorities and international organizations. A heating station was installed. Volunteers prepare hot meals every day from early in the morning. People with disabilities are given a lift. In general, the situation in Donetsk region is complex, but it is fully controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 

Due to the difficult humanitarian situation in the region, the Russian occupiers want to start evacuating residents of three cities of the Luhansk region.

This is reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

According to the information of the military command of Ukraine, the occupiers want to evacuate the entire civilian population from Kreminnaya, Severodonetsk and Rubizhny. At the same time, the General Staff notes that Ukrainians will be “evacuated” deep into the temporarily occupied territory.

– Due to the difficult humanitarian situation in the Luhansk region, the occupiers plan to carry out a complete evacuation of the civilian population from the settlements of Kreminna, Severodonetsk and Rubizhne deep into the temporarily occupied territories, the message says. By the way, in the city of Horlivka, Donetsk region, the command post of one of the units of the occupying forces was hit.