“Here, They Treat Not Only Your Body, but Also Your Soul”: A Victim of an Attack on a Pizzeria in Kramatorsk Underwent Rehabilitation From the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation

On 27 June of this year, Russia attacked a pizzeria in Kramatorsk with a missile. As a result, 12 people were killed, including children and young people, and 65 people were injured. At that terrible moment, Natalia Kononenko from Kirovohrad region was inside the pizzeria, as she came to visit her husband, a military serviceman. The woman received a mine-blast trauma, a spinal fracture, and numerous bruises. Natalia recently underwent a rehabilitation course organized by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation at a sanatorium in Zakarpattia.

“The Foundation team are the only people who helped me, everyone else refused,” Natalia admits with tears in her eyes. “I did not know how I could live with my back that was constantly aching. Now I am in Zakarpattia for the first time in my life. Here, they treat not only your body, but also your soul. It is calm and nice here. Such help is very much needed for people who are in a hopeless situation.”

That day, she and her husband decided to go to a café, just as the air raid alert was cancelled. Natalia recalls, “It was lovely at Ria Pizza. Nice young people worked there, and the pizza was really tasty.” The couple ordered some pizza...

“Suddenly everything around turned dark, and something started pounding on my head. I did not hear the noise: it felt like I was in a vacuum. I was pressed down by a slab, and I could not breathe. Someone was screaming and someone was crying. Somehow, I managed to turn my body and my husband pulled me out. I was very lucky to survive, as the consequences were scary there. Many children [young people] died, from those who worked there, local teenagers...”, the woman says.

After the terrible strike, injuries, and three weeks in a local hospital, when she had to hear the roaring of rockets and see flashes outside the window almost every night, the woman still cannot recover from the stress she experienced. However, Natalia hopes that the rehabilitation will help her, and she will feel better. 

“I hope that everything will be fine and that I will live my life to the fullest,” she says.

In the framework of the program the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Injured Adults, the Foundation provides its help to Ukrainians who suffered from enemy attacks on residential areas. The aid includes medical treatment, rehabilitation, psychological assistance, etc.

If you or someone you know needs help, write to the Foundation’s messenger https://m.me/AkhmetovFDU or call the toll-free hotline 0 800 509 001 (the telephone line is open from Monday to Friday).