My life story before and during the war

Hello!

My name is Nikita Zhemerenko. I am 30. I was born and lived in Kharkiv. Kharkiv is the second largest city in Ukraine.

Here you can find my instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shogun_dean/
And here is my ebay profile with survived stuff: https://www.ebay.com/sch/shogunniki/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

I had a wonderful life with my girlfriend, dog and two cats. Since childhood, I have been very fond of music and everything connected with it. My dream is to make guitars. For the past few years I have been a designer, but recently I decided to move away from that and decided to work with wood and musical equipment. I made balanceboards and guitar cables. Also I developed a line of pedalboards.

But on February 24, 2022, all this was destroyed ... the war began.

On the morning of February 24, we were awakened by loud explosions that sounded non-stop. We took all the animals, one backpack with essentials things and left our apartment in the center of Kharkov. Then I decided to move in with my parents, who lived nearby. I could not imagine that I would no longer see my apartment intact.

During the first week of the war, we lived in a corridor, sleeping on mattresses. Those were the scariest and loudest days of my life. The city was shelled around the clock. Several times rockets hit the places where we were a few minutes later. Panic broke out in the city, many people abandoned their houses and belongings and moved away. Huge queues, empty shops and frightened faces of people surrounded us then. At this time, the historical center of Kharkiv was destroyed.

On March 1, we planned to go home to get some clothes and food. Our house is about 1 kilometer from parents' house. Right before the exit, we heard a very loud explosion. Rocket hit the square, which is on the next street from our house. Later, a neighbor wrote that a window from the explosion had opened in our apartment. Then it seemed to me like a problem. I got on a scooter and drove there to close it, but the military did not let me go to the house. In the evening we decided that tomorrow we would leave for the outskirts of the city.

On March 2 in the morning we packed up and before leaving I wanted to have time to go home. Suddenly a terrible explosion... much louder than yesterday. The walls trembled, and the windows miraculously survived. The rockets came even closer to us. The same minute we ran out of the house and saw a lot of broken windows around. There were 7 of us and 5 animals. We got into the car and drove away from the center.

When we moved to the outskirts of the city, we became a little calmer. It was noticeably quieter there.

But in the evening, the neighbors sent me video. They said two rockets hit our house. Now I cannot accurately describe my feelings, I only remember the huge emptiness inside. I watched the video over and over again. I imagined how our photos, records and all these little things that made up our house were burning.

We heard a lot of explosions over the next days. They were getting closer. Fighters flew over the city and dropped bombs.

One night, something exploded very close. This was our limit... In the morning we woke up with a desire to urgently leave Kharkiv. Two hours later we were already at the bus stop.

When we got on the bus and drove slowly I had a very big desire to run out and stay. It was hard to leave my hometown. I felt I might never come back, but I didn't believe it. We drove very slowly. Animals sat in our arms and did not try to escape and escape. They were scared. The bus broke down several times on the way, but there were people who helped us. We spent the first night at school. I was lucky to find a small pantry room. It was very dusty and dirty. But we were able to release cats there so they would not be lost. The second night we slept right on the bus. We arrived in Lviv devoid of all sorts of feelings and forces.

In Lviv, I experienced strange feelings. A huge contrast between war and peaceful life in one country. Intense homesickness haunted me. I felt that I did not have time to say goodbye to the city and the house, I really missed them. I soon managed to find pictures showing my part of the house. I had the hope that not everything was lost.

All the time I had a strong desire to go back and get into my apartment. Once my girlfriend's father decided to go to our house, but could not enter. In many apartments, doors flew out and the entrance was very littered. After a while, he managed to get inside. He sent some photos and we saw our house for the first time after bombing on facetime. It was a terrible sight, but after that I decided to return to Kharkiv for a while.

The first time I couldn't left Lviv because the bombing was causing train problems.But after a couple of days I managed to get on the train and I went to my house..

My train was 9 hours late. We stopped a lot and went on a detour of dangerous areas.

I arrived in Kharkiv during the curfew and the military did not let me out of the station. Volunteers gave me water and a blanket. I settled on the windowsill in a huge empty hall at the station. Already forgotten sounds of explosions were heard, but somewhere in the distance. I fell asleep thinking I was going to see my house soon.

In the morning I went to my friends. I was insanely happy to see them. I am very grateful to them for being with me at the time. They got used to explosions and war, and learned to live in the moment. We went to the park. It was a lovely sunny day. I was glad that I was in my hometown again. We drank green tea and enjoyed each other's company.

The next day, this park was bombarded with rockets; we planned a trip to my home...

The next day we drove home. I was very worried.

In Kharkiv, all the rubble on the streets is removed very quickly and the destroyed buildings do not look so frightening. But inside my yard so far there have been heaps of bricks instead of buildings. Everything around was destroyed and scorched to the ground. I do consider it a miracle that at least something survived in my part of the house. There was no roof, no windows, but the walls remained intact.

As soon as I opened the door to the apartment, I felt the eerie damp passed through the whole body. Inside, everything was completely wet and destroyed. The first thing I did was start collecting scattered sodden photos, then hang a fallen painting in place. Time seemed to stop. The glass crunched underfoot. I looked at the things that made up the soul of our house. They were broken into small pieces and visible on the floor amid dirt and glass. It was dangerous to be there. We had to quickly collect the essentials and leave. And I went from room to room and couldn't recover. I was confused but friends helped me get together. I picked up things dear to my heart, but many of the necessary things remained there.

My friend made a report of this for @spiegelmagazin

Separately, I want to tell you about my mother.

Shortly before the war, she underwent surgery. Then she could walk slowly and had to lie a lot.

Mom categorically refused to leave Kharkiv and it was very difficult for me. I had to accept it. A few days after the outbreak of war, she and my grandmother moved into the home of relatives who left. It was safer and the entrance to the basement was from the house. Every day I was worried that she was in Kharkiv. We called up and I heard the sounds of explosions in the phone. When it was especially loud, she would go overnight on the subway. But at the same time, she still refused to leave.

In the first photo, I hug my mother, whom I have not seen for about 40 days.She took the next three photos in a subway.

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Now we live in Lviv with unfamiliar people who gave us an apartment for a while. At the moment I've lost all my ways of earning because my workshop was also destroyed by rockets and all my tools were lost. I decided to auction all the important things that I can save the distance from my house. Each of these things is a part of me. These things survived the airstrikes and miraculously remained intact.

Part of my house and all neighboring buildings are completely destroyed. These things filled my house with music for a long time. I want them to bring joy to new owners around the world. They will remind you that not everything can be destroyed by war. I did not specifically clean the traces of dust and dirt, so that the new owner can decide for himself in what form he wants to see them. Perhaps someone will play through these pedals or will store them as a memory of these events and of me.

These are the things I plan to put up for auction:

Some of my LP's for sale: