More than three years have passed since the de-occupation of the right bank of Kherson region. And all this time liberated settlements have been suffering from the terror of Russian troops. The enemy fires on peaceful territories around the clock with various types of weapons. Life under constant targeting forces people to adapt. Often they have to go through real hell. We tell one of those stories.
Kherson resident Oksana Fundirat did not leave the occupation — she says she stayed in the city on principle, waiting for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. She attended resistance rallies against the invaders and waited for the liberation of the city. She also felt that she was simply obliged to feed four-legged animals whose owners had left. Oksana adores dogs and cats. Her Facebook page testifies to this. Most of Oksana’s posts and reposts are devoted to calls to help animals. For the same reason the woman settled at a dacha 15 km from Kherson when the occupiers fled the right bank. As a volunteer, using her own car she delivered and distributed food for animals in several settlements.
Oksana’s family’s dacha is located on the Inhulets River. With each day it became increasingly dangerous in the settlements that stretched along the shoreline. Due to constant shelling by the Russians most residents left.
“After the ‘strikes’ large-scale fires very often broke out. Dachas burned. And the enemy immediately began to shell the rescuers who arrived. They had to leave. Then the dacha owners themselves tried to extinguish the fire. We ran with buckets, most of the people there were elderly. That’s why I stayed to help,” — the woman says.
Oksana was also confident that, having her own car, she could leave the “red zone” at any moment. But things turned out differently.
On August 15, 2025 the dacha cooperative was hit by artillery from the occupied left bank. Oksana recalls — there were no fewer than three impacts in a row. One of them was a direct hit on a house, the second — nearby. The woman’s dog was severely wounded by shell fragments. The Doberman Rait was two years old; at the time of the shelling he was outside. Oksana herself also sustained serious injuries. Numerous fragments were embedded in the woman’s body. Her arm was injured (a fracture in the shoulder area) and her legs. The right shin was lacerated, part of the muscle was torn off and the bone in the lower part of the left leg was shattered. Massive bleeding opened. Being a medic by her first education, the woman knew: minutes were crucial. Not losing composure, she began to treat herself with improvised means.
“The blast wave threw me to the ground. At first I didn’t feel pain — I was in shock. I looked and my left leg was dangling. Then I tore off a piece of the T-shirt I was wearing and bandaged my wound. I couldn’t walk because of the injured leg, so I tried to crawl from the dacha. Then a neighbor ran over; I asked her to bring the first-aid kit from my car. There was a medical pad there, I wrapped my leg. And there was an old rubber tourniquet; I put it on,” – recalls Oksana.
After that the woman began calling the animal shelter located in Chornobaivka. It is cared for by volunteer Mariya Honcharenko. She asked her to call veterinarian Oleksandr Shevchenko, who operates on animals with severe injuries. Oksana hoped that Rait could be saved…
As a result of the “impacts” a fire broke out at the dachas. The head of the dacha cooperative and his wife ran to the sounds of the explosions. Together with the neighbor they extinguished the fire. People also immediately tried to call an ambulance and the police, but under safety protocols emergency services do not go into the “red zone”. And then Oksana was taken to the hospital by neighbor Oleksandr. His SUV allowed transporting the wounded in a supine position. Oksana recalls — they carried her into the car on foam padding that had been torn out of a sofa by the explosion. While they were driving, it became soaked with blood — blood was spurting from the wounds. The driver sped at mad speed, understanding that the wounded woman’s condition was severe. Next was the regional hospital. The medics they were able to reach by phone were already waiting for the patient in the yard.
“I remember telling my relatives on the phone: I was injured, my leg will probably be amputated. They took me straight to the operating room. My clothes, all covered in blood, were simply cut off me”, – Oksana recounts.
That night the woman underwent a complex operation. Kherson doctors saved her life and preserved the leg. But a no less difficult task lay ahead — the fight to restore the limb’s functions, a large area of which remained exposed without muscle tissue. On the third day the patient was transferred to Mykolaiv — to the trauma department of Hospital No. 5. There they installed expensive plates in Oksana’s leg free of charge so that the damaged bone could grow together. A month later Oksana was transferred to Hospital No. 4 (the vascular microsurgery department). There they performed soft tissue grafts. Fragments were removed, they were even in the jaw. In total Oksana Fundirat underwent 9 operations. She spent four and a half months in a hospital bed. Before the New Year the patient was discharged, but recovery is not yet in sight. The wound on the leg still has not closed. Without this the next operations are currently impossible — bone grafting, ‘plastic’ surgery of muscle tissue and skin.
“I am very grateful to all the medical staff who saved me and who continue to treat me. Special words of gratitude — to the head of the vascular microsurgery department of Mykolaiv Hospital No. 4 Potapenko Andriy Oleksandrovych and to Shamray Yuriy Vasylovych, who heads the rehabilitation department in that hospital. These doctors took on my difficult case and said: ‘We won’t abandon you.’ I also want to thank my husband, who was and remains my support. And I express gratitude to everyone who supported me — relatives, friends, and strangers who helped morally, physically and materially,” – the woman says.
Every day Oksana has to overcome pain — strength of spirit helps. The woman does not lose optimism. But it hurts not only physically. She says she cannot forgive the enemy for the loss of her pet. The severely wounded Doberman Rait was brought to the doctor in time and he did everything possible to save the animal. But the injuries proved fatal.
“They tore out a part of my soul. It was not just a dog, but a family member, a child, do you understand?… May they all die, every single one of those occupiers! Because of them our people, in particular Kherson residents, lose lives, health, their relatives, pets, and are left without a roof over their heads. And my story is only a small part of the overall grief of my fellow townspeople. People, remember Kherson. Kherson is Ukraine. And good must triumph over evil,” – Oksana says.
Marina Savchenko.