“Baikal found us by itself”
“I didn’t want to leave: to give up my business, workshop, equipment, car.
The house is new - they took it only in February ... And my wife said: let's urgently sell everything, let's go.
I didn’t believe it until the shells hit their heads,” says 37-year-old Andrei Nutoutus about the events eight years ago.
Then he lived with his wife Natalia and daughter Vika in the city of Yenakiyevo, a small town between Donetsk and Gorlovka.
In August 2014, the family had to say goodbye to their old life in a matter of days in order to start a new one, already in Russia.
“The shelling was getting closer,” Andrei recalls.
- We installed a generator from a friend, we decided that we would run across, if anything, and sit out in his basement.
But, unfortunately, when the shelling starts, there is nowhere to run.
They waited until everything calmed down, somehow got to a friend, spent three days in the basement.
No one had a job, no money, accounts were blocked.
As a result, I sold the car for 15 thousand rubles, this money was just enough to hire carriers who know when they are not shooting and can safely take you to the evacuation point.”
The bus, on which the Nutoutus family later moved with their six-year-old daughter, got stuck in a three-kilometer traffic jam at the border: “I decided what to stand for.
We went on foot, crossed the border, but our bus never crossed it.
He was turned around because the shelling began again.
And then I found out that our house is no more.
Bombed."
On the Russian side of the border, the family was met by employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Andrey continues: “They helped, they were treated very kindly, just a big thank you to them.
We were brought to the camp and fed immediately.
To be honest, everything was delicious.
But something didn’t fit into my mouth then. ”
Andrey, his wife and daughter stayed in the refugee camp for two or three days: “The end of August, it’s cold, there were not enough places even in tents, and we were with a child.
There are no relatives in Russia, there is no one to stay at a party.
Distribution was carried out - it was possible to choose in which region to settle further, they helped on the ground.
The most interesting thing is that we often said at home in Enakievo: I wish I could visit Baikal someday.
And so in the camp they approached the map, saw that there was an opportunity to leave for the Irkutsk region.
We can say that Baikal found us on its own,” he smiles.
"Countrymen did not support"
The time spent in the cold land, Andrei recalls with great warmth: “We were provided with housing for the first three months.
They helped a lot with everything, and with documents, and with travel, and with work.”
Andrei's wife Natalya got a job at a school in Angarsk, and he himself went into the construction industry - he built housing with a brigade of the same people who had left the Donbass to replace emergency and dilapidated houses.
But in 2015, their employer decided to take advantage of the vulnerable position of employees, continues Nutoutus: “We were building for six months.
Everyone was eager to work, I did two shifts in order to be on time and do it right, although the customer saved a lot on material.
As a result, instead of the promised amount for a team of 70 people, we received one million rubles.
That is, someone received 18 thousand for six months of work, some 30, some 25. And the employer said: you have come in large numbers, those who do not agree, those who are now deported back to Donbass.
“In general, they tried to intimidate us.
I myself had just moved there, my eyes were so frightened.
But I still sued.
Of the entire brigade of my countrymen, no one supported me, no one wrote a statement!
Like, what can we do here.
They just dropped their hands, as if no one needed it, ”recalls Andrey.
The court took the side of the man and decided to pay the salary arrears - one and a half million rubles.
However, the employer tricked Andrey into signing the receipt of the money before it was transferred.
“He hands me an envelope, I open it - there are four thousand.
My reaction was, of course, inadequate, I used physical force.
I was with my daughter, my wife at that time was in the hospital with our newborn son Nikita.
The employer wrote a statement to the police.
They called me, listened to me and only shrugged my shoulders.
They said get out of here.
The story ended there, and I realized that you can’t rely on anyone, ”Nutoutus sighs.
"Tears of happiness"
In 2016, the family moved from the Irkutsk region to Buryatia.
At first, Andrey “raised” one company, where he was called as a general director, but a year later he decided to open his own business.
© Photo from personal archive
“In Enakievo, I was engaged in the production of paving slabs, I had my own business.
Then I realized that there is a good demand for tiles,” he says.
- Well, they began to beat at this point.
We went through a lot, and the fire was at a rented base, they were rebuilding.
Now they have already taken out their base on credit.
We are working.
In general, we like it here.
We love nature, fishing, the places here are very beautiful.”
Andrei remembers well the day Russia recognized the independence of the DNR and LNR.
“We have a five-hour time difference in Ulan-Ude and Moscow.
We did not sleep all night: we were waiting for Putin's speech.
We already knew what it would be about.
These were tears of happiness, we rejoiced just like there, ”says Andrey.
He talks about his trips to the Donetsk region after 2014: “I spoke Russian there and they didn’t want to answer me.
When my wife studied at the institute, she first translated the task into Russian, completed it, translated it back into Ukrainian and wrote down the answer.
Why was it necessary to force people to do this, when all the time they calmly spoke and wrote in Russian?
It was more convenient for us."
With the start of a special military operation, the family, which, like no one else, knows what it is like for refugees, began to actively participate in charity and humanitarian assistance.
“So far, two people have come to our region from the Donetsk region to visit relatives, but they say that many people will come to Buryatia.
We buy products in boxes, we deliver them.
And, of course, we are immediately ready to do everything we can when new refugees arrive,” emphasizes Nutoutus.
According to Andrei, the most difficult thing in their move is the periodically rolling feeling of loneliness.
“This is moral fatigue from the fact that we have lost everything and everyone.
There was a big family, and now we are, in fact, alone.
It always pulls home, although over time you get used to it a little bit.
Previously, we went to relatives in the Donetsk region, but now there is no such possibility.
But we keep in touch every day.
Grandmothers are old, they don’t want to move anywhere, and their mothers look after them.
That is, they don’t want to leave us either, and they drive us away because they are worried about our safety.”