Viktor Grozdov, 77 years old, tried to climb out of a large hole in the ground.
As one of the few remaining residents of bombed-out Avdijivka in eastern Ukraine, he is used to craters, but this time he fell down and had trouble getting up.
– Whatever happens, I will not leave here now, he says.
Grozdov had been picking up groceries in a bag. He was helped out of the crater by a team from the AFP news agency, who happened to pass by the devastated street in Avdijivka in eastern Ukraine in April. The pensioner, wearing thick glasses and a cap, was helped to pick up all the groceries that had fallen out of the bag.
– I walked down the street and thought I would go around the hole where the shell had hit. Or the bomb, I don’t know, says Viktor Grozdov when AFP journalists catch up with him a few weeks later and meet him in his apartment.
Tripped and fell
– I tripped where I was walking and fell in. I tried to get up, but the earth was loose and slid away from under me. I couldn’t get up at all.
No buildings in Avdijivka have been spared. The city, a suburb north of greater Donetsk, has been shelled and bombed for nine years. In the last year or so it has been even worse.
The water and electricity supply has been gone for a long time. In the past, up to 35,000 people lived there, but currently the Ukrainian authorities estimate that they are a little over 1,700.
Straight in the bathroom
When Viktor Grozdov leaves home, he sticks to paths he’s taken before. He is visually impaired and uses a cane to get around.
When he is home and it starts thundering outside, he hides in the bathroom. Sometimes he lies flat on the floor. As he talks, tank fire roars somewhere outside, but he takes no visible notice of it.
There is no glass in any of the windows in the apartment. One is covered by a sheet.
The 77-year-old has no thoughts of leaving Avdijivka. He has worked at the city’s large coal-fired power plant for most of his life. His wife and son are buried here.
– My soul is at home, it doesn’t try to leave. I am not worried, I have become calm, says Grozdov.