Story

My name is Andriy. I was born in 2007 in Kyiv. My mother was unemployed, and my father was a
manager at a construction firm. I have a 10-year-old younger sister. These are the first things that come.
to mind about the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion:
The first days of the war were full of panic because of explosions and the news on TV. On February 24,
I couldn't sleep because I had a test at school the next day. As soon as I closed my eyes, I would hear
strange sounds in the distance.
I didn’t pay much attention, but 15 minutes later, my mother comes into my room and says,The war has
started  I didn't believe it, but my father confirmed it. We got dressed and went out to get groceries.
while my sister slept at home. There were tons of people outside; everyone was just talking about the
war, the bombings, and so on. A lot of people were trying to get out of the city, but the traffic was bad.
Soon, my grandmother and uncle joined us. They were scared, like us, of the air raid alarms and sirens.
which went off 5-7 times a day. At each alarm, we all hurried down to the shelter with our essentials.
That took 11 minutes. We couldn’t buy too much [original unclear], seeing as all the shelves at the
market were empty.
On February 26, my father voluntarily enlisted in the armed forces to fight for Ukraine. On March 3rd, he
calls and says, Don't wait up for me at home today; I am being transferred.
Hearing that was very painful. My mother sobbed and was constantly worried. I tried to calm her down.
although it was very painful for me too. We didn’t have any options or possibilities to leave, so we
stayed in Ukraine and had to shelter in basements. We moved from our apartment to my grandmother's.
place.  There was an opportunity to get out of town and stay at my father's relatives’ place, but we didn’t
know what to do and decided to go to my grandmother’s, which we knew was safe.
My father would call, and it was nice to hear his voice, but at the same time we were very worried about
and waited for him to come back. Friends helped us financially and by providing useful information.
Thanks to them, we stopped panicking and were able to act calmly and confidently in serious situations.
That’s how the first two weeks of the war went.