It was not scary. The story of a woman who opened a gas station on the Antonivskyi Bridge, where the battles for Kherson were fought It was on the night of February 24-25, 2022. Battles continued for the Antonivskyi bridge. Hanna Esina from Kherson worked at a gas station. The defenders of Kherson ran out of fuel. At their request to open and run one of the company’s stations located on the bridge, Hanna decided to do it herself, although it was the first time in her life. She left the employee at the workplace, and she went to the hottest spot with the servicemen of the Armed Forces. Hanna told how everything happened. On February 24, around seven in the evening, three people in civilian clothes approached the gas station where Hanna Esina worked. They asked to open gas stations on the Antonivskyi Bridge. Hanna did not believe it and refused. Later, Deputy Mayor Roman Holovnia, police and military officers made the same request. The woman, seeing the documents, began to help. “When we arrived at the Antonivskyi bridge, there was broken equipment on it, everything was bombed. But there were tanks and armored personnel carriers that needed to be refueled. We have two gas stations on the bridge. One is completely broken, the second is more or less alive, but the power supply in she wasn’t there. The soldier pushed the door open. I crawled into the gap and with my supervisor on the phone, I started to start. I started to look for uninterruptible points where automatic machines are turned on. I worked at the gas station for only two months and did not have the experience to turn on the entire system by myself.” Hanna remembers. A few minutes were not enough to start refueling the armored personnel carriers. Explosions rang out, she says: “I sat down and just found the power supply I needed. And just as I started to enter the password at the cash register, a second explosion rang out, plaster poured from the ceiling. A military man runs in, says: “Let’s run!”. I say: “There are 2 minutes left… ” , and he: “Let’s run away! Aircraft!” Antoniv bridge was attacked by Russian aircraft. Hanna had to run to a place where she could find at least some shelter. I didn’t feel like that when I found myself on the Youth Beach. The soldiers took Hanna out of the shelling under the trees. Already at the workplace, she realized that the war had begun. “When I got to my place, I started to shake. Because then I understood that it was war. My colleague asked me: “What gas station were you at? 4th? 5th?”. And I didn’t answer anything, it was dark, I didn’t see anything, I didn’t hear anything. I did what was necessary and then ran. It wasn’t scary there, but only then did I start shaking after everything,” she recalls woman. For another three months, she worked at her gas station until the stocks from the tanks were sold out. She did not dare to leave the occupation for a long time. “I worked until the end of May, and in June I left for Zaporizhia with my family. I have two children – a 14-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son. I could not live there for a long time, it was difficult to find a job, expensive housing. And I returned to Kherson in mid-August, worked in a grocery store,” Hanna said. After the liberation of Kherson, Hanna returned to work at her gas station. Not immediately – it was necessary to restore order – a lot was stolen during the occupation and retreat of the Russian occupiers. Currently, Hanna’s family is in a safer region, but she remains in Kherson and continues to work.
Source: Ukrainian Public TV
