Vitichak Yevhen

“My name is Vitichak Yevhen Leonidovych, I was born in 1976.
I was born in the Velyko-Mikhailovskyi district of Odesa region, in the settlerment of Tsebikovo.

I had a brother. He died at 21. Our a father died, too. He died a couple of years after my brother.
My mother and a stepfather live in Luhansk region. When the war began, I lost contact with them. I do not know whether they are alive or not.

After the death of my brother, I started drinking. I was 23 then.
I began to go all over Ukraine to earn money.
I could live and work in a city, and then I got bored and went to another city.
Five years ago, I came to Kyiv. While working, I rented a hostel. When money ran out, I collected bottles, iron, paper, plastic, everything I could. I took them to recycle places for little money. I slept in all sorts of places, under the balconies and the like.

One day I got so drunk that I fell asleep in the frost and came to my senses in the hospital. They cut off one of my legs, and also the fingers on the other leg.
I spent a year and a half in the hospital, with constant medicine injections…

In the hospital, I began to drink more. I did not see the way out.
I got drunk, they’d kick me out of the hospital, and the ambulance would bring me back later. There was a month when they kicked me out and brought back up to 20 times.

Believers also came to my hospital. For a whole year, they kept offering me to go to a rehabilitation centre, but I refused. I heard from my mates: they will get you somewhere far, where you won’t be able get out from…

I was a fool, I had to go. I did not go, stupid me, and now I have problems with my back in addition, it hurts really bad.
I hope they will help me to restore the documents, apply for disability benefits, help me get a job.
Maybe, I will someday have a family… Disabled people can also get married…”

Our note:
Eugen is now in a shelter, the process of recovering his documents is underway.

photo by Александр Чекменев (Alexander Chekmenev)