This country will never be the same again

The agency is empty in the middle of the working day…

I try not to think on anything, but the pieces of news and talks don’t leave my mind alone.

“There are 11 corpses in Maidan”, “How are you doing, Sanya?”, “A new assault is expected by 14.00”, “What if military operations begin?”, “No doubt it will never be the same again”.

The most recent tragedy we had to face with was one-day delay of the advance payment, but now people die by your side and your feeling of life and time becomes stronger.

I have just returned from the new location site of the State Committee on Television and Radio-broadcasting. Their building was located in Kreshchatik str. near Maidan, which is now occupied by the protestors, who turned it into a hospital for the injured. They came together in another place with all the staff they could take with them (documents and 2-3 computers) and now they are thinking how they can move on.

- Did they bring many injured?

- Quite much.

- With gunshot wounds?

-Yes…

- Did you manage to save anything? The consultation begins.

I return to a building, which is 900 meters away from the first barricade. It’s 2 o’clock. Time stops, your hearing becomes sharpened. Ambulance car horn intensifies. People insert (yes, insert) paintings to the History Museum of Kiev, which is located in the opposite street. Do they try to save the paintings or they are getting ready for a new exhibition?

Somebody calls to the reception. I have allowed the secretary to leave, that’s why I have to answer the calls myself.

- We are calling You from the Red Cross. They blame us for not receiving Canadian medical aid. That’s a lie. We convoked a press conference on that occasion…

I register the data and ask the correspondent to contact them. I allow him not to go to the event, as it is next to Maidan…

It is half past two. The sun accompanies us.

I am walking along the unusually empty corridors of the agency. I am making a tour.

I am tensed. I seem to have heard some explosions… I got stuck in my place… I am going down three floors and come out to the street. Few people wander, as if nothing has happened. The car parking responsible collects money from the drivers of the parked cars as usual. On the other side of the street they are still taking the pictures into the museum.

I am entering the internal yard. Everything is calm here. Here my deputy and the drivers are walking around near the cars.

- Two cars have returned. Now the guys will rest and take the last issuing editors home. If tomorrow the subway does not work, we will publish the news from home. You’d better go as well. Though they say that there are kilometers-long queues at the filling stations and the bridges over Dnepr are closed.

I am going back to the office. I am switching off the TV, appealing to active actions, and opening the big volume of the “History of Kiev-Pechora Monastery”. “Kiev people drove away Iziaslav and crowned his relative, the Prince Vseslav Polozki. Iziaslav returned to Kiev with the help of the Polish strangers. His son, Mstislav, dealt with the rebels with terrible cruelty. About 70 people were executed and many were blinded by his order”, - the book tells the story of a thousand-year-old division and persecution against the elderly sacred about 3,000 meters away from where these lines are read...

Thoughts again will not let relax…

...This country will never be the same again…

P. S. On that day the media informed about 67-100 victims in the result of the Ukrainian clashes.

Oleksander Detsik

Ukrinform CEO