March 24, 2022 I was lying on the couch right next to the window, with shoes on, dressed, in a jacket pulled up to my chin, with a backpack, with 4 dog leashes tied to my hand. The dogs were sleeping with me under the blankets. There was silence, the tanks got quiet. For three days, the tank battle was happening on the neighboring Makar Mazai Street, …
Today I finally got my thoughts together. I want to remember everything. It’s very difficult; there’s an emptiness and despair inside. How much do you have to hate people to kill them and destroy their homes? What did the children die for? And they are still dying. There are tears in my eyes that make it hard to write. It’s very bitter to think that these monsters have …
I never hug strangers. However, I hugged this man goodbye. We talked at the bus stop. This is B. He is from Irpin. I don’t show his face. «My wife and granddaughter were blown up in front of me. They helped volunteers. Well, they gave them food, medicine … They went outside for water, and I stayed at home. That’s where they were blown up. There was a lot of blood… …
Yesterday I took off my tights for the first time in 12 days. I thought I would tear them off together with my flesh, as I’ve already experienced something similar happening to my heart recently. But surprisingly, the [or my] body is so tough that nothing sticks to it now. Not even blood. We spent 10 days under siege. 2 km from Makariv. In one of the most infernal places in Ukraine, …
Today, an elderly man came up to me on the playground. He greeted us and said that he had been watching us for a long time. He asked where we were from and was that my child playing over there. Then he took 100 hryvnias out of his pocket and clenched them into my fist, although I resisted. In half an hour, he came up again with two jars of jam. And for the first time …
An apartment building one block away from my mom’s place was shelled. That’s it in the photo. My mom’s ok. My mother-in-law's also relatively fine — they’ve already equipped their cellar and have a supply of preserves and potatoes. We’ve already moved four times since we fled to Western Ukraine. Our lives fit into a couple of bags. My children are wearing borrowed shoes, we got a stroller from the humanitarian …
For Tania from Kyiv, the war started, not in February 2022 but eight years earlier, when her native Luhansk was taken over. All her nearest and dearest stayed there, on the other side of the imaginary border that was so crudely established. In occupied Luhansk, her mom, her brother’s family, and her husband’s elderly mother struggled every day. For eight …
«Missiles! Hurry to the shelter! God, not again!» I jump out of bed, hunker down, quickly pull on my boots, grab my jacket and rush to the door. It turns out it’s just my elderly neighbor who got up in the night to drink some water—and was tapping her cane on the floor as she walked… …Now I’m sitting in complete darkness and understand that I’m not myself. Here, people …
Today I was supposed to get together with my besties for my birthday. Buy cake and some dry white. We were going to listen to music, hug each other and take silly selfies. I had a new dress all ready. I even had a toast all prepared. And instead… Instead, another life began, abruptly and unexpectedly, a kind of limbo, full of expectations and fear. In the birthday photo, I was …
