Stories

Olena’s email:

Wishing you good health, Mr. Andrii. Olena [...], history teacher of [...] lyceum, is reaching out to you. I am forwarding a diary of my grade 9 student to you. She is a student at [...] lyseum of [...] village council, Vinnytsia region, [...] Alina. I am hoping for collaboration in the future.
With respect, Olena.

Alina’s letter:

Everything started on Thursday (24.02.2022). Just before that we were planning to go to the hospital. I woke up that morning from hearing the words: “The war has started! We are not going to go anywhere, because it’s not safe.” These were scary words because never before have I thought about how it could be to live during the war. On the first day, we were all shaking hearing the word “War,” everyone was nervous including me. We were often informed: “Attention! This is an air-raid siren! Go to the shelter immediately!!!” My parents were holding themselves together, they were not telling the news to my brother, because he takes any information close to heart. Knowing the consequences of war, we collected our most necessary belongings and documents, charged all the phones… When they informed us about the first air-raid siren, we dressed ourselves calmly, took our belongings and went to the shelter. I started shaking again. The siren ended. It was quiet outside. We went back to our house. Next day, around 5 am, there was another air-raid siren again. We were still sleeping at that time, but my mother’s quiet words: “Girls get up! There is an air-raid siren!” forced my sister and I to get up quickly. We dressed ourselves quietly but we were nervous, and then we went to our cellar. In our village in [...], everything was calm, but such cities as Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Kherson, Mykolaiv suffered the most. People started to run form big cities to villages and abroad in large numbers. The news were not comforting. Many men were taken to war. The majority was going voluntarily, including my dad. We were very worried for him, but he insisted saying “I will volunteer [to join the military], I cannot just look at how the enemy is destroying my Motherland!” When my dad was saying bye to us, I couldn’t hold my tears.
In order to not think about the situation, I drew, watched movies, but the pain for Ukraine does not go away. When there was peace in the country, I could always easily go for a walk, relax while walking my dog. Because of the martial law and the curfew from 10 pm to 6 am, no one can walk outside. After 6 pm, as soon as it would get dark, people would shut down their windows with whatever they could, someone would seal them with wallpaper, others would put curtains and blinds, yet others would stick towels around the windows and tried to not turn the lights unless in was necessary.
The enemy forces were putting light reflecting tags, which one could see well from a high point. There were Russians in Raihorod too, who were putting the tags around the village and at the railroads. The Ukrainians were informed that the most of Russian ammunition was destroyed. Because Russian Federation was weakened, Chechen people [meaning Kadyrivtsi, the regiments of Ramzan Kadyrov] came to help Russia by killing civilians of Ukraine regardless of their gender and age.
Many fighter aircrafts have flown over our village. One of the most famous Ukrainian aircrafts is the pilot of MIG-29, known as “The Ghost of Kyiv.” As of today, March 3, he has knocked 30 aircrafts of the occupiers. Because of the horrible events in Ukraine, they have canceled the Final State Certification [state exams after grade 9] for us. I got tired of sitting at home, I started going outside at least for half an hour. I am in contact with friends, we provide moral support to each other. You know how pleasant that is when your heart is heavy and a friend asks: “How are you? Is everything okay?” “How is the situation there? Do you have where to hide?”
Ukraine is supported by almost all EU members and other countries of the world. People go to the protests with Ukrainian flags, even foreigners sing the Ukrainian anthem. People make a lot of funny and truthful memes about Putin (Russian President). Such interesting cases have happened during the war:
- Gypsies [Roma] stole a tank while the occupiers were looking for gas
- The homeless people in Dnipro offered help in collecting bottles for Molotov cocktails (the Bandera smoothie)
- Obolon gopniks [youth gang subculture] pressured the Russians to give up their armoured personnel carriers with their bare hands and beat up the uninvited “liberators”
- The cyber Cossacks from Anonymous hacked Russian State websites in half a day and out wonderful Ukrainian music at all of the channels.
- Queen Olha of our times! A grandma put laxatives in the tea and burned the Russian in the closet
- Ion Henichensk, a woman was kicking out Russian occupiers saying “Take these sunflower seeds and put them in your pockets so that at least sunflowers rise when you are killed here! You came to my land!”

It’s night again. It seems that it’s quiet but… After waking up in the morning, I learned terrible, horrible news again. At night, because of the shelling of heating mains, Enerhodar is left without heating.

The situation remains difficult, but the fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was indeed liquidated. The entire international community is with us now. The shelling stopped at 3 am. As of 04.03.2022, 8:16 am, the territory of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is captured by Russian Federation forces. The Ukrainians if the conscription age have started coming back from abroad. After the open invasion of Russia, only through the checkpoints in Lviv oblast, over 50 thousand citizens of Ukraine have come back. The occupiers have disconnected the mobile networks of Vodafone and Kyivstar over the whole territory of Kherson region. It is very difficult for the residents now, and on top of that they have turned off their connection. They cannot hold back their anger, and that is why they decided to protest against the fake humanitarian aid provided by Putin. The tenth day of the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people to the Russian military invasion. I cannot say much about us, because it’s quiet here. That’s why I will just talk about the news about what is happening in Ukraine on the 5th of March. A good news have cone from Vadym Denysenko, an advisor to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: “The Ukrainian Forces have gained back the control over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.” It also became known that in the vicinity of Kharkiv, the enemy’s motorized rifle regiment 488 was fully destroyed. The Supreme Council of Ukraine has informed about the start of evacuation of civilians from Mariupol. Humanitarian “green” corridor was routed like that:[...]. At the outskirts of [...], the anti-aircraft system professionals have destroyed yet another stormtrooper of the enemy. The pilot capitulated, but he was found nonetheless. Because the Russian Federation does not often keep their word, it became known that the Russian side violated the agreements about the “green corridor” from Mariupol and started shooting, evacuation had to be postponed. The Russian army is not allowing evacuation of civilians and is shelling Volnovakha. Going back to yesterday’s event, it becomes known that the Russian army has destroyed the checkpoint of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and two National Guard members are in a difficult condition; two more Enerhodar residents are being treated at home.
At 2:46 pm in the Mykolaiv region, our marines, together with the Operational Command South shot four helicopters of the enemy, while one of the marines shot 3 at once.
Meanwhile, Voadfone and Kyivstar connection was restored in the Kherson region. Because of the horrible events in Ukraine, children are suffering. As of the 5th of March, 32 children died, 70 were injured.
Two injured children from Bucha died because the Russian occupants have continued the shelling, so the ambulance couldn’t pick up the children in time.
The National Bank of Ukraine opened a special account for collecting the money to help the army and for humanitarian needs, over 10 billions hryvnias have been transferred to that account already. The money was transferred by Ukrainian citizens and entrepreneurs, and also by the representatives of the international community. Television News Service (TNS) reports: “In Belarus, men are running abroad in large numbers, so that Lukashenka (the president of Belarus) does not send them to fight against Ukraine”. Some occupiers surrender to be the prisoners of war, due to the lack of water and food. The captives were saying that they don’t want to fight, they are forced, and their families don’t even know that they are in Ukraine.
In the evening, around 10 pm, we heard explosions, they were heard in all of our United Territorial Settlement. What happened – still no-one knows. On 06.03.2022, we could also hear explosions, and we could see the shells flying at 1:56 pm. In Vinnytsia region, the enemy has hit the airfield in Havryshivka. In Havryshivka, Vinnytsia oblast, Russia has launched a rocket attack on the military object. 8 rockets hit Vinnytsia – this is what the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said.

First British volunteers are already arriving in Ukraine. They are ready to fight for Ukraine against the Russian army. War is war but …today an impressive event happened. Almost everyone in Ukraine heard about it. The thing is that the Ukrainian military stopped a car with girls to check the car and see “if there are weapons.” The Ukrainian girls kept their arms behind their heads. At first, I couldn’t understand what the video was trying to convey, except for the fact that the girls were detained. But then I noticed that the video was filmed not by just one camera, and then one of the militaries proposed to one of the girls. It was unbelievably cool. The girl was pleasantly surprised, and she said “Yes!”
It’s the 8th of March already. No-one will celebrate, I am 100% sure of that, because there is war. This morning, in Sumy, as a result of the aviation strike 9 people died, 2 of them were children. One woman was rescued from under the rubble. Over 600 thousand people were managed to get rescued from Kharkiv, the roads from the city are overloaded. Almost 80% of Ukrainians believe in Victory!

At the same time, the level of trust in President Zelensky has grown significantly since the beginning of Russian aggression against Ukraine, and now it is almost 80%. For the evacuation of the civilians from Mariupol through the one route, the defenders of the city used a number of measures: they demined the roads, got rid of the infrastructural barriers.

But the occupiers did not let the children, women and old people leave the city. The enemy started attacking exactly in the direction of the humanitarian corridor. The general military casualties of the enemy from the 24th of February to the 8th of March, according to the vice minister of defense Hanna Maliar:

Tanks – 303
Armoured Combat vehicles – 1036
Artillery systems – 120
Multiple launch rocket systems – 56
Anti-aircraft systems – 27
Aircrafts – 48
Helicopters – 80
Automotive machinery – 474
Ships – 3
Cisterns with fuel and lubricants – 60
Tactical-level UAVs – 7

Irpin, Bucha and Vorzel are captured, the occupiers starve the people. These settlements mostly don’t have connection with the outside world, they have run out of food, and in some places, there is even no water, there is no electricity and heat.

From time to time, people’s homes are shelled by the occupiers with various kinds of weapons.

Around all of the vicinity of Irpin, there are corpses in the basements and in the streets.. The occupiers do not allow to collect the bodies, not even the Red Cross is allowed to do that, they shoot at the cars carrying the humanitarian aid. On the 7th of March, a Ukrainian virtuoso pilot, who has already become a legend and got a name “The Ghost of Kyiv”, saved thousands of lives of his fellow countrymen by shooting the enemy’s ‘Calibr’ rocket in the Kyiv region. The missile fell around Obukhiv. The unknown pilot, who in Ukraine is called “The Ghost of Kyiv,” shot down 16 aircrafts of the occupiers in 5 days of war. The invaders are scared of him more than they are scared of the anti-aircraft systems. And the Kyiv citizens, for the granted safety, have been calling him “an angel.”

The fifteenth day of the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people against the Russian invasion is going on. I miss my dad so much. I love you, daddy, so-so much. I am worried and want you to come back alive and healthy. He was first sent to Odesa region to defend a military unit; he got a military rank there. Dad would call us at any time he could, specifically in the mornings and in the evenings. He was there for over a week. They were evacuated somewhere else the other day, I don’t know where. He says that they were driving for no longer that 40minutes. But he did not tell where exactly because someone could be recording or listening to the phone conversation. His voice grew more disturbed as compared to when he was at the previous location. We want to find out where he is, Mom: “Are you in Odesa region? Or in some other one?” Dad: “Marina, I am not going to say anything. Neither “yes,” nor “no.” I can’t.”
Mom: “At least tell me if everything is okay!?”
Dad; “we’ve got field kitchen here.”
I hope that everything will be calm. The horrible events haven’t left the city of Mariupol. There, on the 9th of March, as a result of the aviation strike on Mariupol maternity hospital #2, 17 people were injured, among those were the staff and those who gave birth.
As of the morning of the 9th of March, they reported about 1207 civilian victims in Mariupol. On the Crimean direction, they have fixated the strengthening of the enemy’s military groups by the addition of the battalion tactical group from the 336th Separate Marine Brigade of the Baltic Fleet of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In the occupied Mariupol, approximately 1300 civilians were killed under Russian fire. The bodies are put in the mass grave at the outskirts of Mariupol, because people cannot bury their dead due to the strong shelling by the Russian Forces.

The Russians do not allow to evacuate the civilians, they use them as hostages, in order to force the garrison to surrender. Genocide in Europe in the 21st century looks like this. 400 of multistorey buildings in Kharkiv are destroyed by the enemy army. The enemy continues the offensive operation in against Ukraine. After suffering casualties on Polissia, Siversk, South Buh directions, the enemy was stopped at the positions where he previously succussed, he is regrouping the army, restores the combat capability of units, replenishes stocks.
Without reaching their goals, they keep launching rocket-bomb strikes on the objects of infrastructure. Sumy is left without water as a result of the morning air attack. “As a result of the air-raid strikes at 4:50 am, the water utility facilities were left without power. Water supply of the city has stopped. All of the services and enterprises are working in an intensified mode. The buses have already left for Mariupol and Sumy. As a result of the shelling of Mariupol at night, 8 people are wounded, 11 buildings are destroyed, 167 buildings were damaged, a hospital, 11 educational institution buildings.

Unfortunately, all of the siren sounds have become regular for Ukrainians. The situation in Mariupol is getting worse. Today is the 17th day of the Russian-Ukrainian war. I went to walk my dog today. I went down almost to the railroad and felt the aircraft noise, I could hear it very well. We stopped and looked up to the sky. An aircraft was flying slowly over Marianiv fields. I first thought I would go home, but I changed my mind. While sitting on the bench, I was throwing atoy to my dog. A man came up to me from the side of the park, he said: “You are probably tired of sitting at home, so you decided to go for a walk?” I responded that he was exactly right. On the opposite side, the guys from the territorial defense were hiding on their position. It was interesting to watch how they were watching me. I went further and they got closer. I went closer, and they withdrove (they were hiding in the bushes, although one could not see them anyway).

In the evenings of March 13, someone shared the information about the family of a woman from our settlement, Kharchenko (Stanislavska) Iuliia. They live in Mariupol, Donetsk region. The family could not evacuate. Starting from March 2, no-one have been able to reach either Iulia or her husband Andrii. They have a small child with them, their boy is 6 months old. Many people have reposted about them, there are over 1000 reposts on Facebook. I couldn’t just sit there, so I wrote to a Ukrainian actor (Anna Huliaieva) and a singer (Iryna Fedyshyn). They responded to the plea for help to share the information about the missing ones, which I thanked them for. The morning of March 14 started from online school. We were supposed to have 7 classes according to our schedule, but because of the war, we only had 2. It is 7:06 pm on the clock. 5238 people shared the information about the family on Facebook. I feel so sorry for all them – those who managed and those who did not manage to evacuate from the hot spots. Can you imagine that the life under the bullets is such horror?! Can you imagine how it is to live when the tanks are rolling under one’s windows? When you put all your money into that apartment in the capital and in a second “boom” and it’s destroyed? Or how after one strike a house is levelled with the ground? The majority of Ukrainians haven’t known about this, but the war has taught this. Fortunately, it’s only the refugees who come to our village, not the occupiers.

This is just a horror. The 20th day of the war. We have been hearing sirens for the entire day. Today my dad has told us the bad news. He told us that the enemy had tracked them and launched three missiles which hit their quarters. Two of them have exploded. The first refugees have been able to escape from Mariupol, 160 people managed to leave in their private vehicles. The world is with Ukraine, the British government has launched a special website “Home for Ukraine” for those who want to host a refugee. In the first 5 hours, 43,8 thousand people have registered there. It became known that 14 enemy ships have entered the Black Sea, which are moving in the direction of Odesa. In Avdiivka, Marinka – there are bombings. The Russians have launched ‘grads’ on Avdiivka Coke Plant.
Marinka, Novomykhailivka, Stepne – there is no electricity. The bombings go on.
The enemy aviation is activate in Toretsk. There are constant air-raid sirens at night: Chernihiv, Pryluky, Oster, Desna.
Over the last day, the Russian army has been shelling the suburbs and residential areas of Chernihiv. Kherson oblast is under a temporary occupation. Those people who survived the bombings, are dying of illnesses and lack of medications – there is no-one to bury them. In 20 days, at least 28 buildings of worship have been destroyed – mostly orthodox churches.

Today, on the 17.03.2022, we were told that Iulia’s family from Mariupol was found. Iulia was able to connect with the relatives and gave them a sign that they are alive. They escaped to some village or small town on the Russian border, but it is no better there, there are also constant bombings there. I was shocked by how many people were not indifferent. Under the post (publication) as of today (March 18), there were 114 795 shares. These numbers exactly. We can say now that Luhansk oblast is now under Russian side, but why keep destroying it? There are already 27 buildings damaged there. In Luhansk region, the shootings do not subside over all of the front line. In Mariupol, Donesk region, 80-90% of the city has been bombed, there is not a single building without damage – this is what the deputy mayor of Mariupol, Serhii Orlov, reports. I am slowly getting used to this situation. I even turned off the air-siren notices. I am trying not to listen to the news and I think that it is getting better already. But then when I read and learn about all the horrible news, my heart sinks. I have been distracted over the last week, because we have classes now. Not all of them are synchronized because of the military actions in Ukraine. But we get homework.

More and more Russian rockets fly over Vinnytsia oblast now. Fortunately, they get shot down and they don’t reach their aims. Today, one rocket exploded on the territory of Shpykiv territorial community around 4 am. At such a distance, we could hear it too, although everybody was asleep at that time. In Zaporizhhzia, volunteers have discovered two railcars with metal which the enemy was going to use for shooting at Ukrainian military. Instead, it will now serve for the needs of the Ukrainian defense. The 24th of February could be called “Black Thursday,” as on this day the tragedy started. At the age of 14, I have learned what real war is. When I was reading the world history and history of Ukraine, I couldn’t comprehend the pain and the losses of the people of that time, but now… I have talked to my father again, at first I was speaking calmly, and then I could not hold back my tears by the end of the conversation. His voice was so disturbed, she speaks in a serious, clear, no-nonsense manner. There was information, that Russian troops will soon withdraw. We want to believe that and hope for the best. At this time, the majority is judging the people who went abroad. In my opinion, they should not be judged, because everyone has their own life to fight for. Some people have small children, others have left on their own, everyone wants to save their lives. There are so many displaced people in our village that one can see a lot of strangers outside.

And this event touched me. A woman I know, who barely survived, has told this story. A family (a wife and a husband) live in a village outside of Kyiv, when all the territory of that district was captured by the Russian army, then all the people who stayed there were taken captives. All of them were brought to some kind of room where there were a lot of people (all of them were women and children). A military man was watching all of them, he was holding a gun. They were told that everyone had to lie down on the floor without turning and if anyone moves – they would shoot them. One woman turned around and they shoot her in her leg, she screamed: “Help! It hurts! Help!!!” But no-one even moved, it was so scary. She asked the occupier to shoot her dead, so that she does not have to suffer, but he did not shoot. Before next morning, that woman died of pain and stress. The woman I know continued…”I was begging him to let me and my husband go, but he said that if he does not kill them there, snipers would kill them or they would step on a mine that would tear the apart.” Then, perhaps our of pity, he let them go saying: “Do not walk! Crawl!” This is what they did, they were crawling over days and nights, through fields and forests. And then, she says, a sniper spotted them and shot at them, the bullet got to the heels of the shoes and the people acted dead, they stayed like that for a while and then they continued crawling. After a few days, without water and and food they got to some village, where they were taken for evacuation and right now they are taken care of not far from our village. Such sacrifices to just live.

Today is the day 24.03.2022 – exactly a month ago we first felt a horrible life in the times of war. It is the war that took lives of many innocent people. Some people survived and some did not, to today’s “anniversary”. Over this month, the enemies have ruined a lot of what our parents have built with their own hands. But our armed forces will save our lives, I believe in them. It is calm here, although there are sirens and rockets flying. Today, on the 24th of March at 7 pm, when it got dark, it was dark and the sky was without stars, my mom and I saw that something was moving with high speed from one village to another. We were trying to look at it closely, decided to call the territorial defence. We called them and said that something is moving with high speed, an unknown object, they said in a disturbed voice: “Describe it, what is it flying? A rocket? A helicopter? A drone? What is it?” Then they spotted it with a naked eye. They responded that they were ready to go. They call him and said: “We ran to look into the binoculars, we look at it and it’s a tractor. Phew, thank God!”
A month of pain, suffering, tears, faith, hatred, hope. A month of such emotions, which we could not even think of, that we could feel that. A month that showed how strong and resilient. By paying such a painful price, but we have found out the truth. The month which divided our lives into “before” and “after.”
On the 25th of March, at 12:20, I was resting after my classes ended, I was lying down next to the window. Suddenly, my house started shaking, and at this moment I felt the noise of the aircraft. I got very scared, because the sound was powerful. After quickly opening the curtains, I saw that an aircraft flew over our garage in the direction of Vinnytsia. I was shocked. My younger brother and sister were in the house with me. I was so scared that I could not even unblock my phone to let my mother know. The panic prevailed over me. A dream flashed in front of my eyes. In a second, I remembered that I dreamed of such situation and the same aircraft. Then, around 4 pm, I was at school, people from my village informed that they heard of and even saw how two cruise missiles were flying very low towards Vinnytsia. While my mom and I were on own way home, my mom’s friend’s husband called and said that two rockets hit and exploded in Vinnytsia where they live, so that his balcony door opened. The Russians were aiming 6 missiles at Vinnytsia. The anti-aircraft system shot some of the missiles, and others hit the city’s infrastructure.
Tonight was quite disturbing, It was exactly on the night of March 27 from 9:45 pm to 22:25 pm that right where we live (over Vinnytsia region) 11 cfuise missiles of the enemy flew over. It was unbelievably scary. Russian military have got their new record, they launched 70 cruise missiles in a row. Anti-aircraft system shot 62 of them but did not shoot the other 8. The missiles which were not destroyed in the air, fell down and damaged the infrastructure and the territory of Ukraine. My friends texted me immediately expressing their support, they also told me about what they saw and heard.
The situation is not getting better now. There are sirens, aircrafts, the military equipment is being transported, the warriors are fighting for our better future… Today is the 4th of April. A couple of days ago, the enemies have encircled the territory of Ukraine form Transnistria, it is about 100 kilometres away from us. They are getting closer to us. Mariupol is now a cemetery with ruins. They search for people who are missing. The burying services workers in Bucha, have already found and buried 330-340 bodies of civilians, who were tortured and killed by the occupiers. Over the previous day, Russians shelled the district of Saltivka, Piatykhatky, Derhachi in Kharkiv region 17 times. Zelenohorsk in Dnipropetrovsk region was shelled with a phosphorous projectile. Thankfully, there are no victims, - reports the mayor Dmytro Neveselyi. Mykolaiv was shelled with cassette projectiles. Our aunt (my father’s sister) lives in Odesa and is in contact with us. Today, she told that they shelled an oil depository. She could see the smoke from her window.
I have not written stories for a while. Thank God today has come, it is the 15th of April already. It is more or less quiet here, but intense war is going on in Donbas. It is ruined by the enemy, but Ukrainian Armed Forces are not giving up. My dad called us and told us that they were informed about Russia’s attack across all of the territory of Ukraine, my dad told us not to ignore air-arid sirens.
Those ‘golden’ words: “I am home already” made me cry the tears of joy. It is 29th of April 2022, we drove to the hospital, while we were waiting for the results – we decided to walk into a café. And at that moment, someone started calling, it was my dad joyously saying: “I am home now!”. I was so happy that could not hold back my tears. I cannot express how I felt in my soul at that time.
These inhuman beings organized the 9th of May on the territory of Ukraine (Mariupol, Kherson), and also in Russia, they had a Victory Day parade. How could they? Now they are attacking Odesa. Explosions are heard, missiles hit the infrastructure of the city, residential buildings, apartments, bridges… When will it all end?

“We have here overall 12 cats (including ours) and one dog. They always come to out bed to warm us up and to warm up themselves”

“Short photo report with cats
When we were leaving, there was no time to take glasses.
So I am without them.
I don’t go out, even though there is a possibility to walk around in the backyard. I feel sick from everything and cold. I can’t sleep. The news is constantly on.”
“More or less. Holding on. We worry for our family in Kherson. One friend of mine from Russia was at the rally today together with her family. Their town is small, so it was just their family and cops. That didn’t prevent them from detaining her mom)) But she also taught policemen at the police station how to file a case against her and made crack jokes. Another friend I had to talk out of going to a rally, because she lives in St. Petersburg all alone, she supports herself and works. It is a good deed, of course, but she has no money to pay the fines now. I also have other Russian friends. They all worry about me, every day the ask me if everything is alright. One other Russian friend of mine lives in Israel. So she also went to a peaceful rally 👉👈 But everything is much calmer by them, no one was detained like in the Russian Federation.”

"Hello! My name is Arina, and I am from Kharkiv. Here is the basis of all my memories. Here I cried and laughed, and here I met almost all the people dear to me. And now they have all fled. Some to the west, some abroad, some remain, but we are no longer together. And we have only hope that we will all meet someday soon. Every day I wrote to all my friends, even those who were ashamed to write before, to find out if they were alive, not to go for a walk. What held the most significance for me were the first day of the war and the sixth. We － still children, from 8th to 11th grades, sat in the shelter at 5 am, not in bed. We woke up not far from the sounds of gunfire and explosions. Everyone was worried, nervously calling their parents and trying to uplift those who were crying. Little by little, the parents began to pick up the children. An instructor and a principal arrived and lifted our spirits a bit by saying that "war is war, and breakfast is painted".

On the second day, my friend stopped answering my messages. There was no contact with her or her parents, I was very nervous because the last message I received was "we have explosions nearby, we are in storage", and the news spoke of the area where she was brutally bombed. Only today she answered, on the 13th day. Why is it that we now say "March 13" instead of "March 9"? Why do children die? Innocent people? Is this how adults who rule the whole country solve problems? On the 6th day, they started bombing my area. Sitting in the basement on an old mattress, I had no choice but to sit and pray because the explosions were so loud and close that it was dangerous and terrifying to leave the shelter at midnight.

The next day we had left town. Kharkiv, I miss it very much. It hurts me to look at what is being done to it now. The city was built for so long, it was a city where people lived happily, and so much was done to make it prosper, but what now? The Russian army even smashed the square. Stop it. We want to live, and we want peace. Why do this? Why go down in history this way? Isn't it possible to solve these problems peacefully? My acquaintances from the city near Kyiv saw the corpses of young families lying on the ground. And no one can even recover the bodies. It's haunting just to pick up the body. There may soon be a humanitarian catastrophe in the east, but people are doing everything they can to prevent this from happening. And I believe they can. I believe that together we can, but help is never unreasonable, especially now. What are you afraid of? Close the sky over Ukraine, and let us see your dads and brothers, family and friends again.

In those days, the cat helped me a lot, but always running to the apartment's basement was very difficult to decide whether to leave it in a safe place in the apartment or take it with you. But now that we are safe, she is very reassuring when I look again at the "ruins" of my city. I want to go home more than anything. Let me return there safely. And I'm proud of my people, those who are trying to do something, moving to a safe place, those who go to the defence and those who go to the front, volunteers who take people to their hut and give them everything, even settle in renovated apartments, in which they themselves have not yet lived, provide everything. I am happy that I am Ukrainian, and I want to live in a whole, modern and peaceful Ukraine. Thank you!"

February 24th was supposed to be a normal day. I had no idea how everything could be changed, how one person's plan could destroy the lives of millions of people.
My mom woke me up at 5:00 a.m. and said that something was exploding in the city. At first I didn't even understand what was happening, but as soon as I got out of bed and looked out the window, I immediately heard several explosions and the sounds of jet engines. From that moment I had many questions, but as soon as I turned on the phone, one message from a friend was enough for me. My worst thoughts had come true–Putin had declared war on us.
I could not believe it. I was scared and I worried about my sister, who was in another city. I was lucky that my city was far from the border and was not an important target. After the end of the shooting, my parents went to buy supplies and withdraw money from our cards. My task was to pack the baggage and observe the situation through the screen of the phone. Some time later, I saw many photos of destroyed airports and military bases, but that was just the beginning. By the end of the day we were ready to leave the house and go somewhere, but we didn't know what to do. My mother was crying and my father was calm. The only good news was that in the morning my sister got on the bus and went abroad.
The most terrible day was February 25th. Russian troops landed on our city, but our brave soldiers killed and destroyed them. In the evening tanks drove into the city and the battle began. It was far from me, but I heard every shot. During the night, our military regrouped and repulsed the enemy.
The next 10 days passed like one moment. I woke up early, had breakfast and the air-raid warning turned on–it happened three times a day, so I had to sleep in clothes. On the first day, there were young guys with Molotov cocktails in the shelter. We were lucky because the shelter was large and under the house. Every day I saw more and more terrible photos, injured children, destroyed buildings, it showed that the Russian military wasn't different from the Nazis.
For the long time spent in the shelter, I joined the Information Army and tried to explain the situation to the Russian population. Sometimes they changed their mind.
After 10 days, my mother and I managed to draw up a route and plan how to get to my sister in Romania, but, unfortunately, we had to leave our grandmother and father. On March 5th, with the help of the Red Cross organization, we went to Odessa. When we got on the bus, we heard several explosions and an air-raid warning. We left the city immediately. When we were passing through military posts, some of them stopped us and gave us sweets. Our Ukrainian Army are real heroes.
After that, we arrived in Odessa and spent one night in a friend's house. A volunteer took us to the border. We walked two kilometres and stood in line for several hours. The border was on the water and we had to cross the river by ferry. We were cold but we managed it. Then we got on the bus and went to the city of Tulcea, where our sister met us. I've been here for 10 days, but I really want to go home.
As of the 21st day of war, more than 105 children have been killed, more than 3,000 civilians have been killed and an uncountable amount of people have been injured. All this blood on the hands of Putin and his army is an eternal shame for them. We did not start it, but we will finish it. Thank you to Western countries for their help, it would be good if they closed the sky over Ukraine. I hope this never happens again.
Slava Ukraini, geroyam Slava!

“Hello, my name is Danya. I am 17 years old! Now there is a war going on in Ukraine. It is terrifying! It’s scary to remember February 24 because in the morning at 6:00, Mom runs up to me in tears and says, “Danya, wake up, this is war! Our airport was shelled!”. I quickly got up and began to collect all the necessary things! The news started to say that Kharkiv was being shelled, and so on. For 2 days, it was more or less quiet for us. On the third day, my mother and I went to help pack treatments for the front! And then we heard a siren, and everyone in confusion began to descend into the bomb shelter! When we got home, we couldn’t relax. Every 2-3 hours, we received messages, “‼️‼️‼️Warning! The emergency alarm is on. Everyone must go to the shelter ‼️‼️‼️“. We understood that the rest of the nights, we would sleep dressed and take turns on duty! God bless all this will be over soon! GLORY TO UKRAINE 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦.“

What is now happening in Ukraine is difficult to accept. Innocent people and children are being killed; houses, maternity hospitals, and educational institutions are being shot at. The “Russian World” is destroying my country, the country in which I was born. It has destroyed green areas, forests, clean transparent ponds, fertile fields, and gardens, all of which could flourish later instead.
Today, Russia is the most terroristic country in the world. Over the last century, Russia, through its "peacekeeping" actions, has inflicted enormous material losses and incurable mental wounds on many countries around the world.
During the first two weeks of this horrific "peacekeeping operation," I volunteered. Together with my mother, I went to school, where people of different ages, professions, religions, rallied together to somehow help our soldiers. Everyone had a job. Work was in full swing in almost every corner of the school. In the canteen, our hostesses prepared food for our heroes, made stews, baked cakes, fried pancakes, and sculpted dumplings. Many women made blankets from the fabric on camouflage nets. People brought cloth of camouflage and similar colors. Women-seamstresses, who had lost their jobs, sewed mats and balaclavas for our defenders. Camouflage nets were woven in several rooms. People were very united, everyone put a part of their soul into this work. Residents of the community worked without days off because there are no days off during the war. During this time, I had to work with many people whom I did not previously know. But during the common struggle, no one is a stranger.
Sirens were often heard during the work. Everyone went down to the shelter. And every time a common prayer for our defenders and a peaceful sky over our Ukraine was read.
My heart breaks each time I read and listen to the news about unborn children and people who died under the rubble. About those people who have been in occupied cities for many days, without food, water, light, and heat. About the "Green Corridors" promised by the occupiers, yet peaceful and innocent people are still shot. About the destroyed cities and villages, in which hundreds of children and people died. About the sea of ​​tears shed in my country.
I sincerely believe in the Armed Forces and our victory. The aggressor country will not defeat us, because we are a brave and strong nation–we are Ukrainians! I'm proud of that! Glory to Ukraine!
My native Ukraine is my mother
Wake up in peace with the singing of nightingales!
Our army is lions, proud and brave!
Fights bravely to defeat the force that covered my land
I believe in our strength–we will defeat the enemy!
Mother of God and Jesus help us
So my Ukraine will become a sunny green grove
Where the forests are fertile and so are the fields,
Rivers and lakes and people are not lazy–they are passionate about work.

“13.02
I am in the 11th grade. Everything was normal in our school. As in all others, a drill was recently conducted (3 calls), and we were taken to a local shelter, something like a bunker, the whole school in our village. Back then, all these things seemed so far away, and we thought such a thing as war would never happen. We diligently began preparing for the ZNO(final exams in Ukraine) and submitted our applications to register this week.

23.02.
My friends and I went to the ice skating rink in the evening. I soaked in positive emotions, and since my friends were older and they don’t go to school anymore, they promised to come visit me tomorrow during my 4th lesson, physical education, because we don’t see each other so often anymore, everyone works. I was thrilled and was already waiting for that.

24.02
The morning started as early as ever. Around 5:30 am, I was lying in my room and heard the first rings of gunfire. The first thought that came to me was it was just something that fell on our roof. My parents got up quickly and told my younger sister and me to prepare. I wrote to my friends about how much I love them.

In the school group in Viber, the class teacher wrote:
- Children, today we are sitting at home.
Tears instantly came to my eyes, and a Telegram channel named “ZNO 2022” started posting news about the war.

Most of all, I wanted not to go anywhere, not to the West, not to Poland, not to the Crimea, nowhere. Stay in my homeplace, in Ukraine, with my family, friends, and everything I love. The day before, I was thinking about my birthday, and what a big problem it is to decide how to celebrate it. Now I understand that I will not have a birthday, and it does not matter now. I will spend my whole life without a birthday if it all ends right now. Thousands of people are dying.

I remembered the school assemblies and history lessons about the war, the “Heavenly Hundred,” the Maidan. One Begins to perceive it a little differently now. On that day, I would have gladly gone to school to learn physics, which I didn’t like, and sit through at least seven physics classes. If only this morning would start as it did before.

25.02
The Russians built a base for themselves right in front of our house. They came asking for bread and water. My mom made them sandwiches. They said they were peaceful and would not shoot at civilians. The very sight of them was frightening. It seemed their equipment weighed more than themselves. Walking armouries. After some time, they began to crush the asphalt and set up installations with weapons. Mom spread the panic and said that our house would be bombed and we urgently needed to leave. We went to our cousins. That day I cried for the first time.

01.03
Today is the first day of spring. During these days, I spent nights in the basement with many people. There were many children. They all crawled under my blanket and snuggled up. I was the oldest among them there. Of course, they were also scared.
As for me, until that time, I worked. I taught the children and helped them with homework and English. While I was sitting there, many thoughts flashed through my head: that I like working with children and I think I could become a good teacher, but not with our conditions and salaries in schools and great moral stress. But I decided that I would like to study philology and translation. And what will happen next? Who knows. I would like to open my own school.

These days without electricity and water, the only thing that helps is getting messages from my friends saying they are ok. But it was simply unbearable when there was no connection. I have never heard such a killing silence as if every blade of grass is listening, trying to understand if there will be more explosions.
Our heroes continue to protect us, and I believe in peace. I think that our people will be able to survive. And we will not forget every hero. The “ghostly” Kyiv pilot, the brave guys from the Snake Island (Zmiinyi island), who sent the Russian ship to ….. and many others.
Glory To Ukraine! Glory to the heroes.

Memories of the war from Dmytro, 6 grade student.

On February 24th, my mom woke me up at 5:30 a.m. and told me to pack my stuff because the war has started. When I looked out from the window on the 14th floor, I saw that the entire [...] Boulevard was packed with cars. My mother’s acquaintance called us and said that we must leave [...]. After that we packed our belongings and drove to pick up my grandmother and uncle. When we got to the highway, we were “crawling,” not driving, because there were too many cars. I saw people who were fleeing the war walking with their belongings and pets. It was only in the evening, when it was already dark outside, that we got to the Volyn region. They started building block posts on the roads and there were territorial defense units, who were checking the documents. Close to 9 p.m., we reached the village of [...].

Memories of the war from Iryna, 6 grade student:

I will now tell you my impressions when I heard that war had started. It was a regular morning, and I was sleeping calmly. In my sleep I was waiting for the alarm to ring and wake me up for school. Suddenly, my sister woke me up and told me to get dressed in my warm clothes. At first, I couldn’t understand anything. Then I heard that my family had been watching TV since the early morning. I was surprised because none of my family normally watches TV that early. I asked my sister what happened. She told me that a martial law was announced in Ukraine. I started looking through news and public pages through my phone. Then we packed bags just in case and watched the news for the whole day. To be honest, this war has taught us a lot (for example, that we have to appreciate every drop of water). I am not currently in Ukraine and I miss my family a lot. I miss my grandma, my grandpa, my pets, my friends and others. I hope this war ends soon and everything will be fine.

“Observing changes
February 24 at 7:40, I woke up to the sound of sirens. What am I supposed to do, I have no clue, maybe it is a dream, or perhaps, a drill at the most? But no, the sister says Russia has started bombing all of the major [Ukrainian] cities. Something I could not believe until the last moment has begun, something that will prevent me from sleeping peacefully at night, that will make my life seem like an absurd dream, something there is no turning back from, something that one NEVER forgets. We quickly started getting ready to go to the basement, there were no keys, but we were not the only ones running to the shelter, so we just did not think about the keys. There were no more sirens. Is everything back to normal, is it over yet? I went to the store, and my mother asked to withdraw all the money from the card. I have never seen so many people at an ATM. There were many people: women with babies, elderly people, people on wheelchairs, the whole area was going to withdraw money, the most amazing thing is that nothing was heard, no one spoke, complete silence, as if time had stopped. The bank has set a withdrawal limit of a maximum of UAH 2,000 per day. I stood in line for 4 hours, I did not have my phone with me, I thought I would run out for 10 minutes and return home, as a result I missed all of the lectures. I could not withdraw the money; the card was blocked. So I went to the store, had some cash on hand, and wanted to buy water and some food. I did not buy either, since the shelves were almost empty, and a 5-liter bottle of water costs UAH 100. I got back home with nothing. I got 20 jars from the attic, so I filtered water in them.
My mother decided to go to her acquaintances in Truskavets, because there was information that our house would be bombed at night, because we have 120 apartments for military officers, and my parents are from the military, and the next building is an armored plant, the best target for a bomb, heh? We drove restlessly, the journey was hard and scary, it seemed that we might not make it, now I understand that these were children's worries and nothing dangerous. But my sister has been living in the front line for 4 years, when we visited her, on the way we saw a burned bus which did not reach its destination. For the rest of the journey, this picture was in front of my eyes, and made me think, it could have been us, we could also not get there. It was calm in Truskavets. But I could not rest, so the next morning I returned to Lviv to meet refugees from Rubizhne and Kyiv (grandmother with granddaughter, and mother with a child). They were supposed to arrive in the evening, but the train was delayed for 17 hours. 6 AM, I did not sleep all night, waiting for them, finally arrive at the station. I wanted to call a taxi, but there were no cars. Suddenly, I heard sirens. I ran out into the street, all the neighbours were in the basements, I ran down the street and asked people if they had a car, that I needed to pick up women and children from the station. One had no keys, the other one called me stupid, no one was willing to go with me during the air raid.
Once again, I regretted that I did not pass the driving test and did not make enough money for the car… I was in a panic, in tears I ran around the area and asked people for help, asking to save, not myself, them. I did not care about the sirens, the air alarm, I would take them away and take care of them. One noble man agreed to go with me to the station. I took the children and women home, fed them, and put them to bed. I was later horrified by their stories. 17 hours in a compartment for 16 people with closed windows, without light, water, food, and signal. One 1.5-liter bottle of water was shared among all the people in the compartment during the whole time. Some fled with a suitcase full of stuff, the others had no time to collect even the essentials. I prayed every day that the military facility where I host refugees and try to save them, give them the opportunity to rest before going abroad, would not be bombed. But I cannot provide people with peaceful rest, every 2-3 hours we go to the shelter because of the air alarm. I recall one 90-year-old grandfather from Kharkiv, with whom I used to go down to the basement (from the 10th floor) 4-6 times a day, he could see almost nothing. And I was afraid of everything. God, give us time to crawl to the shelter. I had no fear over my own life, but I felt responsible for the lives of these people. I blamed myself for the sirens and that people could not rest, instead, I would call them to the shelter.
My mother and 8-year-old sister Tanya were in Truskavets at the time. At night mom called me and asked to pick Tanya up and take her abroad. Knowing what it was like to sit in the basement of a military building for hours and find explosive butterflies on the grounds, I did not want such a life for my sister. And since they could no longer stay in Truskavets and living in a ticking bomb-house was not an option. We rented a car to take the refugees and my sister abroad. I was responsible for a grandmother with a 6-year-old granddaughter, a woman with two children and my Tanya. I had to save them, at least provide them with a calmer life, because they had already suffered a lot. After hastily collecting some stuff, leaving the keys in the postbox so that someone could use the apartment, if necessary, we went to Truskavets. We collected Tanya at some point of the journey, said goodbye to our mother and went to the Krosten pedestrian border crossing point. Nothing has been said about my dad in my story. He is a colonel of the Armed Forces, I have not seen him since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, and I had no connection with him, where is he, how is he? Maybe it sounds funny, but back then it did not bother me much, I wanted to save these people, and I was sure that my dad would cover our backs, protect us, and fight.
My mother is also a military doctor in the reserve, she was expecting a summons any day, so she could not go with us. There was no time for being upset, I quickly came up with a plan and promised myself to do anything in my power to save these children and their confused relatives. They did not understand Ukrainian well, they seldom left their towns, and now there was such a journey ahead of them, but I was sure that I would not let us down. The driver drove us to the border, I left everyone in the car, ran to the station, checked in on the bus that takes 15 km to customs. We were #525 in the line, the driver said we would take a bus to the border no earlier than 12 hours. I ran to seek shelter for us, because the children would soon be hungry, they would need to sleep. I ran from yard to yard, knocked on the doors, and asked to sleep over. One grandmother agreed to take us in and promised to feed us. I came back to pick up my group, thanked the driver, took all the bags, and went to our rescuer. It was my fourth night without sleep. Every hour I ran to the station and asked about the state of the queue. I wanted to sleep incredibly, but I could not, could not afford to sleep. The grandma let us in a small living room, the children slept on the couch, while others - right on the floor covered with our coats. I have never seen a more hospitable and sacrificial person in my whole life until then, because then there is more. The queue was clearly delayed, and 12 hours turned into 25. The grandmother only had a sofa for 2 people, there was no room for sleeping, and there were 7 of us. She ran looking for alternatives. We were told that the boarding school accepted refugees, there were mattresses, and we could spend the night there. I dragged my people there, and we got registered. Seven were given 3 mattresses, but we were still glad; it was better than staying on the street, given it was ruthlessly cold outside.
It turned out that it was no longer a boarding school, but a school where children, instead of studying, playing games, watching TV series, going to clubs, were registering, and resettling refugees, preparing meals, cleaning, and playing with refugee children. These kids grew up way too fast! We slept next to people who were #320 in the line, they were from a town on the border with Poland, 3 teenagers, a grandmother, and a woman. If I am not mistaken, they were very happy to be able to go abroad and told us how everything was promising there: high salaries and developed infrastructure. These exciting stories made me sick! People who loved their home, had everything, lived in full security, were simply forced to leave, and flee, without clothes and food, they fled from Rubizhne and Kyiv. I blamed myself for not being able to help them cross the border quicker. I wanted these storytellers to shut up, those who thanked the war for the opportunity to go to Europe. I was mad inside, but there was no strength to argue, to prove something, my group was very grateful for everything and did not complain about anything. I was even more nervous that I was also running away, that I was not in the defence or on the volunteer point, I wanted to go back and be useful, but I could not leave these people. If there were relatives abroad, I would have left Tanya with them and gone back, but we had no one. I was supposed to live in that Europe and settle in, but about that later. On the Polish side of the border, a Pole had been waiting for us for 20 hours in his car. I had agreed with him back in Lviv that he would wait for us and pick us up and accommodate us for a couple of days. Poles have always treated us [Ukrainians] superficially, for them Ukrainians were a second class, cleaners with higher education, and ass-cleaners with master's degrees. I could not even think about the good attitude towards Ukrainians. Moreover, I was surprised that they had not yet closed the borders for us. Myths about Poles began to dissipate with the arrival at customs, we still waited for our 525 number and got on a "Bogdan" (brand) bus. Two people per one seat, first loading people, then suitcases and bags; a total of 2 m in height. Based on those bags one could distinguish who was coming from where. Whether someone is fleeing the war after losing his/her home in one pair of slippers, or someone looking for new employment opportunities and a comfortable life. Someone has one sack, and someone else - 3 brand new suitcases measuring one meter by one meter. 20 minutes and the bus miraculously took us to the customs. It was freezing cold if my memory serves me well - -8 degrees + snow. Got into the line. We waited in the cold for about 1.5 hours. At that time, I forgot about myself. But the children were freezing. We took out all the blankets and wrapped them like cabbages, but in vain, they continued to tremble from the cold. We put on up to 3 pairs of socks for warmth - hopeless. The Poles kept bringing hot tea, we gave it all to the children to warm up their handles, but it did not help.
I began to warm children’s hands with my own breath, one girl, then another, then my Tanya. I remembered I had sweets, 2-3 kilograms were given to us by some good people. I walked between the line and handed out sweets to the children. it would not help to warm up, but perhaps, to gain some energy. An ambulance arrived; a child could not stand the cold. We heard she could not be reanimated and died. I do not know if it was 100% true, but I still can't hold back my tears. Children, we must save the children, take them out of this horror. Once you are not sure whether you will be able to bring everyone to safety- it gets scary. But as a ray of hope, in a time of helplessness, a woman arrived in a car and loaded the nine of us into her jeep so that we could cross the border quickly. Our angel, our salvation. I do not know how long she had been transporting people like that for. She could certainly go back and build a bright future a long time ago, instead she carried on saving people from the cold by transporting them across the border in a warm white car. There were two children sitting on my lap, but who cared, the most important thing is that they were alive. And what then, then it would be easier, I had believed. After an hour of driving in a jeep through customs, we crossed on the Krosten border, and Polish volunteers surrounded us with their care. They invited us to the heating tent, gave us tea, food, and even donuts for the children. One of the girls had a broken zipper on her winter coat. We got her a brand-new warm coat found in a pile of humanitarian aid. We were literally warmed and dressed up.
Later we were picked up by the Pole, with whom we had agreed before, he took care of us like no other: "Maybe you need to go to the hospital, or you are hungry, I have got some water, I can buy you coffee" - and he went on throughout 5 hour-journey to Warsaw. The children fell asleep in the back seats, and I cried in the front when they could not see. Only the driver saw it and I am grateful to him for his silence. I am grateful that he did not ask questions, did not try to calm me down, because I just had to cry and regain some strength for further action. Having realised everything, this incredible desire to take out as many children as possible and carding that I could not take anyone else. But most of all, I was aware and depressed from POWERLESSNESS, I could not save everyone, I could not stop the war, I could not shoot down flying bombs, I COULDN'T. I understood that all these children would be taken away by their relatives and taken care of. Most of all, I was thinking about my sister. Our parents, our defenders, remained in Ukraine. Our mother had to be called on duty any day, given she is a nurse in reserve. Dad (Colonel of the Armed Forces) whom I have not seen for a long time, where he is now, is he alive? I am going to an unknown place, what awaits me? I do not know. But I was confident that I would do anything I could, to provide for my baby [young sister]. I am her mother for now, maybe forever.
I did not even dream of continuing my studies at the university. I just had to settle down somewhere, get a kid to school and work, a lot, so that Tanya would never be hungry again. No, I also wanted to study and defend my thesis. It was my biggest dream for the last 5 years, but now this idea seemed so unrealistic and unattainable. My sister thought this was a fun trip and she had always dreamed of travelling. How wonderful she is, never complaining. I was so joyful and happy in front of her, but as soon as she fell asleep, I cried… non-stop… Tanya would often ask why I had such red eyes. I told her that it was an allergy (I had never had anything like it in my life), but I lied as much as I could. She asked about our parents… I lied with a lump in my throat that our father was our defender, he would defeat the Muscovites and we would come home, but I did not really know if he was still alive. I would also tell her that our mother just could not come now, but she was in a beautiful sunny place where there was no war… I wish.
P.S.P.S. helplessness has become my main character trait, I am constantly aware of it. Some say that I am achieving something incredible, maybe in peacetime that would be the case. But for now, I cannot stop the bombing and rebuild the destroyed house, I cannot return the parents to their children, I cannot restore the psyche of the ruthlessly raped woman, I cannot do any of these… nothing… powerless…

Memoirs on the 24th of February, and a bit of my life.
[...] Ekateryna, 21 years old, [...], student in [...] university.
Just two days ago the street was filled with people. Now it is empty and everything is closed…
Hi, we are a family from [...]: my mom Nadiya, a history teacher; her son Matviy, a 1st grader; and me–her daughter Kateryna. We have an old dog named Knopa.
On the 24th of February, 2022, we, like everyone else, were getting ready to study and go to work because the COVID-19 quarantine was finally over. Around 5 a.m., our lives were radically changed. After the bombing (we live in the city center), my mom and I jumped out of our beds and started frantically checking social media on our phones–it is so good we have these tools now. My little brother was still asleep.
When we finally understood that all the threats and talk about an attack had become real, everyone went to make coffee and call my maternal grandmother and grandfather.
My mom got a message from the school administration about the work protocol and she spoke to other colleagues of hers. After she came back to reality, she rushed to the school to pick up my brother’s backpack, because she had to get back to online teaching again. Thanks to quarantine we have such habits.
I didn’t have classes that day, so I tried to keep my spirits up and not panic. In the evening we decided to go to bed when we could, which was when it was quiet. We had time to watch many information channels and we installed new apps on our phones for emergency communication.
The next day, on February 25th, my mom received her salary by transfer. She didn’t have any scheduled lectures that day. I had a test, but we asked for it to be postponed. After my brother’s classes, we made a list and went to the shop to buy supplies. The shelves were mostly empty.
We decided to risk it a little bit and went for a walk on [...] street, to check whether the coffee-shop where I used to work was open. [...] surprised me and I was terrified because just two days ago the street was filled with people. Now it is empty and everything is closed…
After lunch we came back home. After a long family discussion, we decided to stay in [...], but to move to another apartment where we had tenants till the 24th of February. This was largely because this apartment was in a place that had survived two wars with no major damage. Two weeks of school and university breaks passed there.
On March 13th, when school resumed, we decided to come back home. Internet connection and technical support was much better there. The tenant came back to our other apartment after a while, when different factories and businesses started working again.
All of the time, especially during the night, we talked about the news and our emotions. These talks were very helpful to me. My mom explained historical perspectives of different events. We tried and are still trying to keep calm, but it is so hard because of my younger brother.
Studies, which have begun, distract us from all the mess. We’ve had some moments of joy because we celebrated my mom’s and my brother’s birthdays at the end of March. It was very modest, but still a very emotional celebration in our small family circle.
Today is April 18th. We are learning online while I am writing this letter. We dream about victory and we believe in the UAF (Ukrainian Armed Forces)!