Roma policeman Mykola Buzyla

This young guy was already on the alert at six o’clock in the morning on February 24... Mykola himself told us a more detailed story:

“My name is Mykola Buzyla, I’m twenty-seven years old. At the moment, I live and work in Mykolaiv. I spent my childhood in the Kherson region, in the city of Hola Prystan’. My family is big, we are six brothers and sisters, parents and eleven of their grandchildren. My sisters, mother and all my nephews are currently in another country. My father is a farmer, and my mother is a housewife, raising children and grandchildren. I am married, I have two boys – one is seven years old, the other is six. 

After school, I went to serve in the army, and after leaving the army, I went to study to become a police officer. Before the war, I worked in the police. On February 24, at 4:50 a.m., I was raised on a combat alert, and already at 6:25 a.m., we were all standing with machine guns in our unit. At that moment, two rockets flew by us over our unit, and we immediately went to Kherson with our leaders. From that moment on, I communicated with my family only by phone. My family was very worried about me and the events in the country in general. My children were also worried, but I could not tell them the whole truth, so I said that “Dad went to work”, but I think they understood the importance of the situation anyway. From Kherson, we received an order to go to defend Mykolaiv, and from that moment I have been in Mykolaiv. 

After arriving in Mykolaiv, three days later I decided to take my family abroad, because my family remained in Kherson. It was simply impossible to be in the occupied territory, because I was in Mykolaiv, and they were already in the occupied territory, where there were mass murders of civilians, robberies and brutal behavior on the part of the Russians. According to my relatives, Russian orcs entered people’s homes, where they robbed, killed, threatened, and looked for Ukrainian soldiers. 

That’s why I decided to take my relatives out for their safety. At that moment, Kherson was occupied, and the Antoniv bridge was already in the hands of the enemy. It was very difficult to get there and take them out of there; I drove and swam there across the river, by boat, because the bridge was no longer accessible. There were constant bombings, I walked from the river to Holaya Prystan’, collecting only documents, we walked with my children and wife through the forests and outskirts on foot to the river, and then, under the sound of rockets, we sailed on a boat, reaching the already unoccupied Ukrainian territory. Currently, my family is abroad and everything is fine with them, and I am in Ukraine and continue to serve in the internal affairs bodies. In total, I have been a police officer for nine years. During the entire period of the war, I defended Mykolaiv Oblast’.

During this entire period, I remembered the day when it all started – February 24. With my experience of nine years in the internal organs, I was still shocked by the situation. There were many approaches, shells fell 200, 300 meters from us or even less, when we were defending warehouses. There was a day when I was in the barracks, it was about eight o’clock in the evening, and suddenly the whole sky “lit up” with red light, and after a few seconds a loud sound was heard – it was an “arrival” that fell about 200 meters from my barracks.

From the beginning, my work was as follows: after the Armed Forces of Ukraine conducted combat operations, my boys and I traveled and inspected the sites of combat operations, took away corpses and wounded, and then defended military facilities with the boy soldiers. Now, for the last month, I have been doing the same, but in Mykolaiv, where there are ten or even more “arrivals” every day. In fact, it is very scary to see how dead people are lying on the ground after rockets, to go to the place of shelling several times every day... It really affects the psyche, but when I was still studying, I understood what profession I had chosen. Therefore, my work is everyday “24/7” and even Saturday and Sunday, without days off. When you live and protect our country every day and see everything that is happening with your own eyes, it is very terrible and very difficult.

I see my future only in the victory of my native country, I don’t think otherwise! Everyone will return home to a peaceful land. I will finally see my wife and children. Currently, we can see how the guys of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are doing their job decently, because previously Mykolaiv was shelled 20-30 times a day, but now it is less. This means that the enemy loses his strength. There is progress, which means victory soon! I want to wish everyone a peaceful sky, patience and health. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to heroes!”

Author: Valentina Buzyla, EqualNet network

Translation: Anastasiia Tambovtseva, EqualNet network