I’m very worried about the fact that most of my classmates are abroad now and none of them know when they will come back. My close friends don’t even chat with me as often as they used to, and some of them have transferred to other schools.

I’m really afraid that they will stay there for a long while and so I won’t be able to see them for a long time. My friend’s parents had friends who lived in Irpin and they died, which makes me even more afraid for my friends.

I often get scared because of the explosions, and sometimes I can even hear them at night. When that happens, I have to sleep in the hallway, and it’s terrible because my back hurts if I lie on the floor for a long time. I still remember how I couldn’t fall asleep because I didn’t want the airstrikes to freak me out again.

I didn’t end up going down to the basement much, but I remember how, when I did go, it was very crowded and dirty. There were even people who stayed there for days on end, some with babies and pets because the little ones were terrified.

I really hope and believe that this terror will end soon and life will go back to normal, and all people will understand that this horror was caused by russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Varvara, 15, Kyiv