Ukrainian mother-of-two Oksana Serhiienko tells how she was shot in the face by Russian soldiers

Oksana Serhiienko was evacuating her two children from an occupied area when a bullet fired by a Russian soldier struck her in the face.

Oksana Serhiienko can’t feel her lip.

Three years ago, she was evacuating her children from an occupied area when Russian soldiers shot at her and a bullet struck her in the face.

Moscow frequently denies targeting civilians but stories like Ms Serhiienko’s point to the contrary.

When Russian soldiers marched into her village of Yasnohorodka, in the Kyiv region, in 2022 one of their first stops was the local council, the 44-year-old teacher said.

“They were looking for lists of those in the military, who’s serving and where. They would then go to the houses and take people,” she said.

Ms Serhiienko’s eldest son was away serving in the army then and she feared her family would become a target.

Oksana Serhiienko was shot in the face by Russian troops. Supplied

Oksana Serhiienko in hospital after being shot in the face. Supplied

In early March, she decided to evacuate her teenage daughter and six-year-old son.

The plan was to take them to Kyiv through a village southwest of their home but Ms Serhiienko was forced to change course after Russian soldiers stopped her at a checkpoint.

Instead, Ms Serhiienko made her way to a neighbouring village but as she continued driving more than a dozen Russian troops emerged from the sides of the road.

She climbed out of the car to ask if she could pass through but she was only met with silence.

“I get back into the car and drive and then I hear the sound of a machine gun,” she said.

As Ms Serhiienko turned the car around, a bullet went through the windshield and then through her cheek, shattering her jaw.

The bullet hole left in the windscreen. Supplied

The injuries left behind by Russian troops. Supplied

“The bullet had gone through my cheek and came out of my mouth,” she said.

“I looked in the mirror and there was a hole, blood was everywhere. I turn around and go back. I spit out all of my teeth, throw them out the window and continue driving.

“If I had just looked in the mirror as I was turning, they would have probably killed me instantly.”

The local hospital that admitted her had no surgeons but a destroyed bridge had prevented a locally residing doctor from travelling to Kyiv for work and he was able to treat her.

“They found a needle, thread, numbed me and sewed me up as best as they could,” she said.

With much of the road infrastructure destroyed and traditional supply routes cut off in the early days of the war, food had become scarce in the region.

Local fishermen then in secret started transporting produce into occupied villages by boat across a river near neighbouring villages.

Oksana Serhiienko with the car she was driving when Russian soldiers shot at her.

On the way back, they would evacuate those who wanted to leave.

That was how Ms Serhiienko and her children managed to escape days later.

After the family reached Ukrainian controlled territory, they were able to travel to Poland where doctors reconstructed her jaw.

She has also been receiving laser treatment and psychological help thanks to a rehabilitation centre called Unbroken in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.

The road to Ms Serhiienko’s village is flanked by thick, green forest.

She says at the start of the war, locals would cut down the trees and drag the trunks and branches across the road to hold back Russian forces.

Today, her village appears calm but with less than 150km between her home and the Belarusian border – one of the launching pads for the invasion – she fears another Russian assault.

Ms Serhiienko, whose serving son was killed in the war last year, keeps a go-bag packed just in case.

“I don’t think the war will end in the next two years,” she said.

“Putin wants the whole world at his feet.”

Originally published as Ukrainian mother-of-two Oksana Serhiienko tells how she was shot in the face by Russian soldiers