She Dreams of Returning to Liberated Mariupol: Kira Obedinska on Her Injuries, Her Abduction to the DPR, and the "Future of Ukraine" Award
Source: Suspilne
Authors: Oleksandr Kurta, Serhiy Chernyshov
Kira Obedinska is a 15-year-old girl from Mariupol who currently lives in Uzhhorod. She moved to Transcarpathia as an internally displaced person and is a student at the “Image” Lyceum in Uzhhorod.
In May, Kira Obedinska was honored with the “Future of Ukraine” award. She was one of 24 children to receive this distinction.
“It was completely unexpected for me,” she says. “In the morning, I was getting ready for the last day of school, when suddenly my grandfather got a call informing him about the award. First, the lyceum’s principal called, then someone from the city council,” adds Kira Obedinska.
“This award motivates me even more to share people’s stories, to never lose faith in myself, to help people who find themselves in difficult circumstances, and to continue volunteering,” she says.
The Outbreak of Full-Scale War and Her Injury
"I was standing at the bus stop, waiting for the bus to get to school. It was 5 a.m. My dad called me and said, ‘Kira, hurry home—run!’ I asked, ‘What happened? I have important tests; I was supposed to move up to 6th grade.’ A few minutes after the call, I heard explosions nearby,” Kira recalls.
“Since the call was on speakerphone, a woman standing nearby heard the conversation. She took me by the arm, covered me with her jacket, and led me to the other side of the road. I got on a bus and left. That’s how I experienced the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.”
Kira was forcibly taken to occupied Donetsk after being wounded by a landmine explosion.
“We wanted to leave Mariupol on foot in a small group because there was no other way out. We stopped on the side of the road because our bag of food had torn. I was standing on the side of the road with a girl about five years old and a dog that, for some reason, had been walking with us the whole time. The girl accidentally tripped over a tripwire with her foot, and I was right next to her. It injured me and the little girl, but the dog really saved us—he took the brunt of the blast,” says Kira.
“We didn’t realize what had happened; we thought it was an incoming missile. We immediately threw ourselves to the ground. Personally, I didn’t feel any pain at the time—I was in shock. Ukrainian soldiers ran up to us; they had stopped a car full of people who were trying to leave the city. Those people ran out of gas halfway there, and we were intercepted by ‘DPR’ soldiers. They took us to Mangush, took X-rays, and examined our injuries. Unfortunately, they couldn’t provide proper medical care there, so they took us to Donetsk,” the girl says.
Return to Ukraine
A few months later, Kira was able to return to territory controlled by Ukraine. First, the girl was taken to the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv. There, she received treatment for her injuries for ten days and also worked with a psychologist. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the girl at the hospital.
In early May 2022, the girl arrived in Chernivtsi. Kira’s grandparents had moved to the city a month earlier. They didn’t take the girl with them right away because she stayed in Mariupol with her father, Yevhen, who didn’t want to leave the city. He was shot by Russian soldiers while on watch on the balcony of his apartment. Her mother died when Kira was less than a month old.
“I was so happy to see my grandpa; I was jumping for joy. I hadn’t seen my grandpa—or anyone in my family, for that matter—in so long. In the last few days I was in Donetsk, I started to lose hope that I’d ever get to see him. I was held captive by the Russians for about 1.5 months. After my release from captivity, I was taken to Okhmatdyt for a 10-day course of treatment. After that, in May 2022, we moved to Chernivtsi, where we lived for 2.5 years, and in the summer of 2024, we moved to Uzhhorod.”
She plans to enroll in college and dreams of returning to a liberated Mariupol
After finishing 11th grade, Kira Obedinska plans to enroll in university.
“I haven’t decided on a major yet, but I’m thinking about the humanities. I want to return to Mariupol once it’s liberated from Russian occupation, walk down my old streets, and see the sea. And, of course, I dream of Ukraine’s victory,” says Kira Obedinska.
Authors: Oleksandr Kurta, Serhiy Chernyshov
Kira Obedinska is a 15-year-old girl from Mariupol who currently lives in Uzhhorod. She moved to Transcarpathia as an internally displaced person and is a student at the “Image” Lyceum in Uzhhorod.
In May, Kira Obedinska was honored with the “Future of Ukraine” award. She was one of 24 children to receive this distinction.
“It was completely unexpected for me,” she says. “In the morning, I was getting ready for the last day of school, when suddenly my grandfather got a call informing him about the award. First, the lyceum’s principal called, then someone from the city council,” adds Kira Obedinska.
“This award motivates me even more to share people’s stories, to never lose faith in myself, to help people who find themselves in difficult circumstances, and to continue volunteering,” she says.
The Outbreak of Full-Scale War and Her Injury
"I was standing at the bus stop, waiting for the bus to get to school. It was 5 a.m. My dad called me and said, ‘Kira, hurry home—run!’ I asked, ‘What happened? I have important tests; I was supposed to move up to 6th grade.’ A few minutes after the call, I heard explosions nearby,” Kira recalls.
“Since the call was on speakerphone, a woman standing nearby heard the conversation. She took me by the arm, covered me with her jacket, and led me to the other side of the road. I got on a bus and left. That’s how I experienced the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.”
Kira was forcibly taken to occupied Donetsk after being wounded by a landmine explosion.
“We wanted to leave Mariupol on foot in a small group because there was no other way out. We stopped on the side of the road because our bag of food had torn. I was standing on the side of the road with a girl about five years old and a dog that, for some reason, had been walking with us the whole time. The girl accidentally tripped over a tripwire with her foot, and I was right next to her. It injured me and the little girl, but the dog really saved us—he took the brunt of the blast,” says Kira.
“We didn’t realize what had happened; we thought it was an incoming missile. We immediately threw ourselves to the ground. Personally, I didn’t feel any pain at the time—I was in shock. Ukrainian soldiers ran up to us; they had stopped a car full of people who were trying to leave the city. Those people ran out of gas halfway there, and we were intercepted by ‘DPR’ soldiers. They took us to Mangush, took X-rays, and examined our injuries. Unfortunately, they couldn’t provide proper medical care there, so they took us to Donetsk,” the girl says.
Return to Ukraine
A few months later, Kira was able to return to territory controlled by Ukraine. First, the girl was taken to the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv. There, she received treatment for her injuries for ten days and also worked with a psychologist. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the girl at the hospital.
In early May 2022, the girl arrived in Chernivtsi. Kira’s grandparents had moved to the city a month earlier. They didn’t take the girl with them right away because she stayed in Mariupol with her father, Yevhen, who didn’t want to leave the city. He was shot by Russian soldiers while on watch on the balcony of his apartment. Her mother died when Kira was less than a month old.
“I was so happy to see my grandpa; I was jumping for joy. I hadn’t seen my grandpa—or anyone in my family, for that matter—in so long. In the last few days I was in Donetsk, I started to lose hope that I’d ever get to see him. I was held captive by the Russians for about 1.5 months. After my release from captivity, I was taken to Okhmatdyt for a 10-day course of treatment. After that, in May 2022, we moved to Chernivtsi, where we lived for 2.5 years, and in the summer of 2024, we moved to Uzhhorod.”
She plans to enroll in college and dreams of returning to a liberated Mariupol
After finishing 11th grade, Kira Obedinska plans to enroll in university.
“I haven’t decided on a major yet, but I’m thinking about the humanities. I want to return to Mariupol once it’s liberated from Russian occupation, walk down my old streets, and see the sea. And, of course, I dream of Ukraine’s victory,” says Kira Obedinska.
This is an automatic translation generated by DeepL.