At the beginning of the war, my family and I moved to a village in Kyiv Oblast, where we had previously built a house. We took in two other families with children. The first week of the war was quiet there, and I continued to teach the children to play the piano and bandura.

On the eighth day of the war, the rascists* stormed our village in tanks, which they proceeded to park in private backyards, knocking out fences.

My husband was on duty. He managed to escape and hide in a ditch, from where he was able to contact the Ukrainian military and report the enemy’s location. He remained in hiding for a day and a half, informing our military, until the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to destroy the enemy forces and the new equipment they brought to the village the next day.

The rascists killed several men in our village, firing at and looting houses. When my husband saw that the creeps were heading to our house, he called me and told me and the children to dress warmly and quickly hide in a pit near the house. He said to leave the doors to the h use open.

When we left, we heard shooting in our direction. My two children, my seventy-five-year-old mother and I lay on the damp earth for three hours. The rascists entered the house, took away laptops, tablets and my BANDURA. What for?

On the third day, we were miraculously able to evacuate, happy to be alive! We arrived in Lviv, and here my friends let me use their bandura. For me, this was very important, because in peacetime I conducted the children’s bandura ensemble «Golden Strings.» So we resumed online classes.

Of course, not all the children have instruments, because they are not at home now.

We are learning the national anthem on the bandura, and a song about our hometown «Kyeve miy/My Kyiv.» We genuinely believe in Ukraine’s victory! Ukraine is and Ukraine will be!

Natalia, Kyiv Oblast

* The word «rascist» is a neologism for «fascist russians» who support their country’s war in any capacity Russians or are involved directly in it.