Girl recalls dead friends while recovering from drugged driver crash

In early January, dad carried his daughter into the ward in his arms, and the next day she took her first steps at the Irina Volkova rehabilitation center in Yekaterinburg. We talked about the tragedy and how Lisa survived the misfortune that the whole country discussed, about recovery and doctors« predictions.

The tragic crash happened on October 27, 2025 in Revda, Sverdlovsk Oblast. The driver, an active participant in the SMO (Special Military Operation), pumped up with alcohol and drugs, hit three girls. The schoolgirls were standing at the intersection when the «twelfth» flew onto the sidewalk. Sisters Kira and Anya died on the spot; they were seven and nine years old. Their friend, fifth-grader Lisa, sustained severe injuries and lay in a coma for a day. Doctors at the ninth hospital in Yekaterinburg saved her, but she couldn«t walk.

‘After discharge from the ninth hospital, doctors told us: perhaps she will walk. For us, it was a shock (that Lisa might not stand on her feet and regain the skill of walking. — Ed.)’, recalls Konstantin, Lisa«s dad.

During rehabilitation, Konstantin was together with his daughter, taking sick leave — he is an electrician at the Revda plant. Mom stayed home this time with the younger children, who are very small: two and four years old.

When the misfortune first happened, mom lay in the hospital with Lisa for several weeks, and Konstantin sat home with the younger children. Now they have switched. Since October 27, all the life and plans of the parents are aimed at one thing — Lisa«s recovery.

After discharge from the hospital, they bought the girl crutches, but she couldn«t stand on her feet and walk that way.

‘In the end, we tried to persuade her for two weeks, but it didn«t work out, — Konstantin continues to recall. — There was a psychological barrier: uncertainty, fear that it would hurt.’

On January 8, Lisa came for rehabilitation at Irina Volkova«s clinic and already the next day took her first steps with the help of a walker.

‘Thanks to the exercise therapy instructor Alexander Vladimirovich Kozlov, he is a true professional, — says Konstantin. — Thanks to him, Lisa started walking.’

Because the leg was in a cast in one position for a long time, Lisa could no longer bend it. In such cases, contractures begin to appear, and if rehabilitation is not started in time, the consequences can be severe: with advanced ailments, people never fully extend their limbs. It«s very good that they started working with Lisa on time: exercise bike, exercise therapy, massage, exercises, walking on stairs. Lisa joins the conversation and talks about her successes.

‘When we measured at the very beginning, the leg bent at 95 degrees, after a week — 89, then 61, then 41. Now everything is much better. Learning to bend the leg was very difficult for me’, the girl says.

Now Lisa walks on her own, still with the help of crutches. The bone callus has just begun to form, and it«s too early to load the leg, to fully rely on it. But doctors give good predictions: Lisa will walk, and when fully recovered, she will be able to dance again.

The girl has been dancing in the «Rainbow» collective since first grade, performing at festivals in different cities across the country. In the summer, their ensemble became a laureate at a festival in Sochi. Friends and classmates have been in touch with her all this time, writing, supporting.

On November 27, Lisa turned 11 years old. She was congratulated at school. Parents then brought their daughter in a wheelchair. Not only teachers and classmates gathered, but also completely unfamiliar kids from Revda came to congratulate her. Lisa will likely be able to go to school after the spring holidays, for the last quarter. Although at that very time, the girl faces another operation — removal of pins (part of these structures for proper bone fusion has already been removed, but not all).

‘Now the main thing is to start walking, — says Konstantin. — To say that everything is good, one cannot. Who knows how it will all turn out. Lisa also had lung problems due to the injury, and a concussion. For now, without extra hopes.’

The perpetrator of the accident, Mikhail Slobodyan, is now in pre-trial detention, awaiting the end of the investigation and subsequent trial. It is known that he wrote a petition several times to have the criminal case dismissed and sent him to the SMO, but was refused.

The tragedy caused a huge outcry. Hundreds of people came out then to a spontaneous memorial, and townspeople simply won«t understand if the perpetrator avoids punishment and then returns to the city as if nothing had happened.

At the moment of the accident, Slobodyan was a participant in the SMO, he was then on leave due to injury. Lisa«s parents saw him on the same day the misfortune happened, in the emergency room of the city hospital. They were called from the hospital then, told that their daughter was in serious condition. They arrived and there met the one who did this.

‘It was immediately clear that he was on drugs, — Konstantin says tensely. — Black eyes, those don«t come from alcohol. Demon eyes. I can»t call him a human. I hope he won«t be allowed to go to the SMO and he will serve his sentence. So that he doesn»t find this loophole and then walk around schools with medals. We have a small town, nothing can be hidden, people told how he before this went to our clinic, shoved his SMO certificate so that everyone would let him through without a queue, ahead of grandparents.

I generally think that for such a crime it«s fair to give a life sentence and strip him of his ranks, orders, so he doesn»t disgrace others. He took the lives of two, crippled the third. Lisa isn«t made of iron, she remembers her friends and cries. 15 years — that»s nothing. I don«t want to remember… But to the trial, we will, of course, go.’

Konstantin tells how in the beginning, in the hardest days for them, many people came to their aid: both relatives, and teachers, and strangers. He recalls with gratitude how in the very first days volunteers, also participants in the SMO, contacted them. They organized a fundraiser for the family, and when it became possible, visited the girl in the hospital, brought games, coloring books, fruits — everything that doctors allowed.

‘This crime against our children was committed by a participant in the SMO, which is why we had to intervene, help. There are no stranger«s children, — says volunteer Anton Boetsky. — I remember, on the second day we came home to mom and dad together with our psychologist, understanding that it»s very hard for them now and a psychologist«s help is necessary.’

Anton — himself a participant, veteran of the SMO, combat veteran, activist of the public organization «Northern Man». He is sure that the perpetrator of the crime cannot be allowed to go to the special operation.

‘He must be punished, serve the sentence appointed by the court. One cannot entrust such a person with the defense of the Motherland, the execution of state tasks’, the combat veteran is confident.

The mother of the deceased girls, Svetlana Shipitsina, told how she lives after the tragedy, she is also against the perpetrator going to the SMO.

All news about the fatal accident in Revda we collect in a special section.