Teenager who survived blast urges others to avoid mine dangers
When 15-year-old Nastia learned that doctors had removed 30 pieces of shrapnel from her body following a landmine explosion last year, she knew she was lucky to be alive. "If the shrapnel had struck my neck just half an inch to the left, it would have severed my carotid artery,” says Nastia, who lives in Ukraine’s Kharkivska region. “That would…, "My school is ruined, my house is destroyed", Nastia was 13 years old when she saw a tank for the first time in her life. It stopped outside her front yard and pointed its muzzle in the direction of her home. It was February 2022, not long after the full-scale war had first broken out, and her hometown had become a battlefield. Even now, she struggles to fully comprehend the scale of the…, “I saw that my legs were covered in blood”, Red signs warning of landmines are everywhere in Izium. Some of Nastia’s favourite spots and even normal city routes have become inaccessible. "Our forests, cemeteries and exits from the city are mined,” she says. “We don't go to the river because it's dangerous. We used to go mushrooming as a family, but now we don't. A boy from my school was…, “Our stories are a warning not to go near or touch mines”, Nastia touches the white scars on her legs, where pieces of metal from the detonator punctured her skin. "I counted,” she says. “I had 23 shrapnel wounds on one leg, three on the other and one very large wound on my leg. I had one piece of shrapnel in my neck and three in my eyebrow.” Today, as a result of her terrifying experience, Nastia is…
Ukraine
