Pustovalova Olena, Bobovyk Evhenia and Victor

During the Nazi occupation of Kyiv, Yevhenia Bobovyk lived with her children Viktor (born in 1923) and Olena (born in 1927) on Gorky street (now Antonovych street) in the same house as the Sklyanskyi Jewish family. Igor A. Sklyanskyi went to the front at the beginning of the war. His wife Maria and two sons - the two-year-old Heorhii and four-year-old Oleksandr - stayed in Kyiv. The mother of Igor, Hanna, and his sister Rakhil Shvartsman with her son Mykhailo and daughter Lucia were killed in Babyn Yar.

Viktor Bobovyk was in the local fighter detachment. Hiding from the raids, he made a secret manhole under his desk to the basement. It was possible to get to it only having put forward all drawers of a table. His friend Mykhailo Zemchonok from the next flat dug a passage to the basement on his side and connected the two flats. The Bobovyk family had been hiding two neighbors' boys in this hideout for almost two years. It was difficult and risky, because small children made noise and cried. One of the elders was with them all the time - Viktor, Olena or their mother.
 

The Sklyanskyi brothers were baptized in the Catholic church of St. Alexander and Catholic crosses were put on them. But someone informed against the family. In November 1942 Yevhenia Bobovyk was summoned to the commandant's office for questioning, but she assured the police that there were no Jewish children in their home. Since then, the boys began to hide more carefully. Their father Igor was commissioned after being severely wounded in battles in Latvia in September 1944. After treatment he returned to Kyiv. He was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the Second Class, the medals "For Merit in Battle", "For Courage".

After the war the two families of Sklyanskyi and Bobovyk remained friends.

On October 31, 2002 the Yad Vashem honored Yevhenia Bobovyk, their children Viktor Bobovyk and Olena Pustovalova the Righteous Among the Nations. In 2006 the President of Ukraine awarded Olena Pustovalova the Order of Merit of the Third Class.