An Eyewitness Account to the Bloodiest Shelling of Belgorod
Artem, Emergency Physician
Readovka.ru (Original in Russian)
We were at war...and I slept. — I'm from Belgorod. I was born, grew up, and studied here. I am 24 years old, I have been working for six months as an ambulance doctor, and at the same time I am doing my residency training as an anesthesiologist and resuscitator.
February 23 was the birthday of a friend. We went and congratulated her. We discussed the subject of war because we had all sorts of thoughts and conversations during that week. I said at the time: "Come on, what war, it's the ravings of a madman", I went to bed and woke up at about 7-8 in the morning. My mom calls me and says, "Tom, the war has started. When I woke up, I said, "What war? What? With whom?!" My parents saw and heard it all, they live in Razumnoye, and it was loud enough. I slept through it all safely, and then I saw it on the news.
Readovka note: the village of Razumnoye is located to the southeast of Belgorod, closer to the border.
The emotions that I had at that moment about the war were a lack of understanding of what it was about, and why we were invading the territory of the nearest state. Belgorod is a city where most people have relatives or close friends close by. Accordingly, there was incomprehension and denial.