From https://t.me/pravdaGerashchenko_en

"War is when, one afternoon, you're shopping for the evening's birthday party, and the same day, at dinner, you're preparing a funeral instead. Every time, I tell myself it can't get any worse. But, since 2022, life has shown me that there's always worse than the worst," #Ihor shares.

His story is heartbreaking. #Russia causes our people to have such grief, such heartache. Please read #Ihor's story. Please help us protect #Ukrainian people.

Pravda_Gerashchenko_en

Ukrainian patriot. Advisor to Internal Affairs Minister (2021-2023). Institute of the Future founder.

Telegram

In 2014, #Kherson local #Ihor_Stepanenko fell in love with a young nursery assistant, #Svitlana, already the mother of two - a son, #Stanislav, and a daughter, #Daria They got married and had two more children, #Polina and #Yehor.

8 years later, #Russian troops invaded #Ukraine. While #Russia occupied #Kherson, #Ihor's car was confiscated by the #Russians, his apartment was heavily bombed, and after the explosion of the #Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, the apartment was flooded.

In the summer of 2022, #Ihor lost his elderly father and, at the end of the year, his wife. Because many doctors had left #Kherson during occupation, her pneumopathy, neglected and badly treated, degenerated.

#Ihor and his family went to #Kryvyi_Rih. There, he met #Oksana. #Ihor's kids liked her, as well.

On January 17, #Ihor and #Oksana went to buy groceries - it was one of the kids' birthday. A #Russian missile landed on the playground near where #Oksana and #Ihor were.

For Igor Stepanenko, a twice-widowed Ukrainian, war is proving that 'there's always worse than the worst'

In 2023, a father fled Kherson, where his wife died and Russian occupiers destroyed his apartment. The young widower found a new companion in Kryvyi Rih, almost a 'second mother' for his children. But Oksana was killed beside him by the shrapnel of a missile.

Le Monde