The author’s father, Valeriy Dmitrievich Durnev, died on April 26, 2022. By then, obtaining medical care in the frontline part of Donetsk region was extremely difficult: through an acquaintance in the regional military administration’s internal policy department, the author managed to reach the regional health office and then the only therapeutic ward still operating in Kramatorsk.
According to him, the other medical institutions had already been evacuated by that point. This included laboratories, most clinical departments, the city oncology service, and even the local outpatient clinic that served the family.
Four days before his father’s death, the author traveled to see his parents. He got there with friends who were taking drones for soldiers and body armor for a volunteer territorial defense unit in Toretsk. He used that trip as a chance to enter the combat zone and visit his family.
He did not arrive empty-handed: he brought canned food, buckwheat, and good vodka. After the full-scale invasion began, a total ban on alcohol sales was introduced in Donetsk region, and, as the author notes, it remains in force, although bringing alcohol in for personal use was allowed.
“I remember how my father asked hopefully about that vodka — whether I had brought it — and then struggled with the complicated cap and plastic dispenser.”
The author recalls that his father already looked very unwell at the time: he spoke quietly and coughed. Still, no one at home seriously accepted the offer to help arrange hospitalization. Easter was approaching, and the family decided to put it off until later.