WEBVTT - Made with VTT Creator 00:05.842 --> 00:23.201 position:50% align:middle On February 24, we woke up to explosions. I don't remember exactly what time it was, but it was earlier than 6 o'clock, for sure. At 6 o'clock, we started calling 00:23.201 --> 00:35.448 position:50% align:middle teachers asking them not to send their children to school, because we didn't know what would happen next. We were still watching TV, we still had electricity. 00:35.448 --> 00:52.971 position:50% align:middle We got ready for work at 7 a.m. and went to work as usual. We met a rather old man, he was feeding the pigeons and said that something was very loud today, 00:52.971 --> 01:11.428 position:50% align:middle and my husband said: «Father, the war has started». He didn't believe it, my grandfather said: «Is he crazy?» We went to work. We took the tram, I went to my school, 01:11.428 --> 01:24.172 position:50% align:middle my husband went to his school. Luckily, we didn't have any children anymore, the teachers came and went, because the girls called 01:24.172 --> 01:35.273 position:50% align:middle and said that the children were very scared, the children were crying a lot, so that mum wouldn't go anywhere, so that mum wouldn't leave. In such a situation, it's too much to ask a person 01:35.273 --> 01:49.731 position:50% align:middle to leave a child. The teaching staff, who lived close to the school, gathered, and our principal also came. We talked about what we were going to do, 01:49.731 --> 02:11.458 position:50% align:middle and assigned duties. We still had electricity, but we were afraid to leave the school without anyone, especially since our shelter from the bombing was open 02:11.458 --> 02:27.046 position:50% align:middle and seemed to be working at the time. In the evening, we returned home, and there was no electricity - some wire was broken in the village of Myrne, 02:27.046 --> 02:47.839 position:50% align:middle and we were actually left without electricity, although it was repaired later.On the 25th we still had no electricity We walked (the tram was still running) to my husband's school 02:47.839 --> 03:07.047 position:50% align:middle because he still had electricity to charge the phones. We read the news, we all knew that something terrible was happening. Then we returned home, the electricity was still on, 03:07.047 --> 03:22.306 position:50% align:middle and we watched some more TV.I don't remember, I think, on the morning of the 26th, they switched off the electricity and didn't switch it back on. On Saturday 26th, 03:22.306 --> 03:34.332 position:50% align:middle I went to my mother's house, cooked her some food, told her that she had better get ready, because something was going to go wrong, 03:34.332 --> 03:52.055 position:50% align:middle and we went back to school in a taxi with the principal. She tried to give us our work books, so I kept them, although I did not want to take them away 03:52.055 --> 04:10.145 position:50% align:middle because I did not believe that what was happening would continue. We agreed on duties, and Saturday, that was it. On Sunday, I was on duty at school, and my husband was on duty on Saturday, 04:10.145 --> 04:34.849 position:50% align:middle he did not have time to return before the curfew and stayed at school overnight. His school No. 30 was located closer to the outskirts of the city, it had not been shelled yet, 04:34.849 --> 04:57.033 position:50% align:middle but it was louder than ours. On the first of March, we moved from Myrne village to my mother's place in the centre of Illichivsk district, to Yuvileynyi cinema, 04:57.033 --> 05:10.984 position:50% align:middle where there was still light. When we arrived, there was no heating, but there was still gas and electricity. On the first day, my husband tried to go to school, 05:10.984 --> 05:21.079 position:50% align:middle but he was not allowed to go, because the shelling had already started near the school, at the sports stadium. On the second day, I tried to go to school. 05:21.079 --> 05:48.893 position:50% align:middle My husband's students, graduates, drove us to the Pentahon, it was quite loud there, several arrivals on the way, and the tram was already broken. There was a Grad shell near my school, 05:48.893 --> 06:00.417 position:50% align:middle on the edge of the sports ground. We went into the school, into the bomb shelter; there were two children there, and we took them to their parents [so that] they would not 06:00.417 --> 06:14.185 position:50% align:middle be left in a cold school without heating. We suggested that they [move] somewhere closer to the city centre, because if there was an arrival near the stadium, 06:14.185 --> 06:27.507 position:50% align:middle it meant that they must have started shooting. After the hostilities, I went to look at the house, and when I took my children there, the house was intact. 06:27.507 --> 06:49.132 position:50% align:middle I don't know what happened to the children. We walked back to my mother's place. On March 6, the gas was cut off, there was no more electricity; my mother had no gas. 06:49.132 --> 07:07.106 position:50% align:middle We decided that we had to go back home to Myrnyi, because there was stove heating and we could cook some food. On March 7, we got ready and went there with my husband, 07:07.106 --> 07:27.439 position:50% align:middle hoping that our house was safe. On the 8th, we came back and took my mother and walked to Myrne. It was already quite loud at Piati Vorota. My mother is already 70 07:27.439 --> 07:43.491 position:50% align:middle and a little bit older, so this transition was harder for her than we thought, but it's okay, we got there. Then on March 17, we went to visit my mother's apartment. 07:43.491 --> 07:54.418 position:50% align:middle Two bombs had already fallen between my son's house and my mother's house, and there were no windows. The door to my son's house was jammed, 07:54.418 --> 08:12.081 position:50% align:middle and it was very good that [no one] was there, because they opened it after the war, even when we left, after the active phase. The children were with my sister-in-law's mother. 08:12.081 --> 08:26.456 position:50% align:middle The last time I heard from my son was on March 2, he said he was at work and everything was fine. After that, I heard from him for the first time around May 20. 08:26.456 --> 08:43.095 position:50% align:middle Then we knew they were alive. On March 17, we did not know whether they were alive. The main thing was that we knew they were not there, 08:43.095 --> 09:09.523 position:50% align:middle because there was no way they would have come down from the 5th floor with a child. We returned to Myrnyi. On March 28, a shell hit our house. I don't know what kind of shell it was, 09:09.523 --> 09:31.590 position:50% align:middle the crater was more than half my height, I'm not very tall. The neighbouring house was destroyed, it is not subject to restoration, the load-bearing wall completely collapsed. 09:31.590 --> 09:48.100 position:50% align:middle Our house was damaged, in fact, 10 houses on our street were damaged. Our roof was damaged, all the windows were blown out; we were cut a little, it was a normal cut, 09:48.100 --> 10:06.221 position:50% align:middle I didn't know we had so much blood, the blood was not washed off. Then, in May, I tried to wash the floor, but it was already stained; I wiped the dust and the blood stains got darker. 10:06.221 --> 10:30.969 position:50% align:middle We didn't have much to eat, we didn't think we could stay in such conditions for a long time. In general, Myrnyi was notable for the lack of water supply. There is a water supply system, 10:30.969 --> 10:54.621 position:50% align:middle but it hasn't worked since March 7. Before we went to my mother's house, we stocked up on 200 litres of water, but it's going slowly. 10:54.621 --> 11:22.295 position:50% align:middle We tried to take water from two firefighters' tanks, one near school 50 and the other near the building materials store. The men first threw buckets there on ropes, 11:22.295 --> 11:41.201 position:50% align:middle then went down and took it, but there was not much water, but we had enough to drink. Another point. We immediately started saving food. My mother bought the last bread, 11:41.201 --> 12:04.085 position:50% align:middle I think, on March 1, and we immediately started to share it, so we survived. We still have a loaf of bread left. We have a dog and 3 cats, 12:04.085 --> 12:25.871 position:50% align:middle we didn't think we would leave the animals to the mercy of fate, but thanks to a neighbour, they survived until March 7, when we returned. Then we started trying to keep the animals alive. 12:25.871 --> 12:40.611 position:50% align:middle The neighbour helped us with food, and we exchanged money. We didn't have any potatoes at all. We came from my mother's house, and there were a dozen and a half or two potatoes. 12:40.611 --> 12:54.273 position:50% align:middle At the beginning of the war, we had 2 kilos of buckwheat and a kilo and a half of noodles. The day before, I had a fight with my husband because he had bought a kilo 12:54.273 --> 13:15.153 position:50% align:middle and a half of lard and salted it. I asked him why he bought it, we wouldn't eat it, but thanks to that lard, we shared it all... no more than a cup of tea, because there was not much water. 13:15.153 --> 13:37.031 position:50% align:middle We cooked soup, 3.5 litres of soup lasted us for a day and a half. We survived because we immediately started sharing. The shelling did not stop, there was nowhere to buy food, 13:37.031 --> 13:59.051 position:50% align:middle everything did not look good. People from the neighbouring streets started coming to our street, saying that the Russians were most likely starting to enter our village, 13:59.051 --> 14:14.055 position:50% align:middle we had to leave because there would be more shelling, they would take over street after street. I was completely overwhelmed. I was running around the house, throwing things, 14:14.055 --> 14:30.224 position:50% align:middle leftovers and shouting that we should go somewhere else. For some reason, I was very scared at the time. It was the beginning of April, the first of the month. 14:30.224 --> 14:43.928 position:50% align:middle My husband calmed me down and said: you have to understand that the only chance to stay alive is to stay here. He was right. We stayed, so we stayed alive. 14:43.928 --> 14:59.955 position:50% align:middle On the 14th, I think, our village was completely taken over by Russian troops, men were taken from our street for filtration. 14:59.955 --> 15:21.439 position:50% align:middle My husband told me from the filtering centre that the children were alive, they were in russia at the time, that our son was wanted, that all the relatives were alive, 15:21.439 --> 16:01.138 position:50% align:middle only my niece's husband died. Then my husband's brother and sister came, it was April. We started to get bread, my colleague brought it around April 15-16. 16:01.138 --> 16:18.150 position:50% align:middle After that, we started to leave the village, started to go to school 45 for water, there were several wells there. In peacetime, it would take about 40-45 minutes, 16:18.150 --> 16:40.375 position:50% align:middle but we ran it in 20 minutes, despite the 20-litre tank. Then life started to get better. We applied for humanitarian aid, and after the 20th we received humanitarian aid, 16:40.375 --> 16:59.327 position:50% align:middle so we already had food. I went for filtration, I think, on May 12. That was the first time I saw my husband. He said that by the time he returned from the filtration, 16:59.327 --> 17:13.926 position:50% align:middle I should have the things packed. Well, I came back from filtration, we were conditionally lucky - we turned around in one day. I told my mother that we were packing. 17:13.926 --> 17:29.723 position:50% align:middle My mother, like all people of my age, looked at me, and I told her: «Mum, you have to understand that I'm leaving here. If my husband says we have to leave, we will leave. 17:29.723 --> 17:50.425 position:50% align:middle I will not be able to come to you, you are coming with me». She said that was fine. On May 17, my husband came around 12 am. Before that, we had a very loud night, 17:50.425 --> 18:03.754 position:50% align:middle I didn't sleep the whole night, and I fell asleep right away. Then my neighbour knocks on the door and says: «Don't worry, come out». So I came out. Another moment... 18:03.754 --> 18:19.657 position:50% align:middle When I saw my husband at the filtration, I did not recognise him, he was completely grey, well, he had grown hair, unshaven, but completely, completely grey. 18:19.657 --> 18:46.769 position:50% align:middle I thought he was 65 years old, at least. He came back shaved, and the first two days were very difficult for him, psychologically, he had a heart attack. His blood pressure went up a lot, 18:46.769 --> 19:13.521 position:50% align:middle and he was taken from the filtration unit to [the hospital], apparently he had a concussion, to Novoazovsk, they gave him an injection to make him feel better 19:13.521 --> 19:21.551 position:50% align:middle and said that they could send him back to the filtration unit or he could go on his own. He said he would go somehow on his own.He was given a ride somewhere, 19:21.551 --> 19:50.448 position:50% align:middle and walked from Novoazovsk to Mariupol. He said he had to get legalised there. We went to the hospital in the 17th district, my dad lives nearby. 19:50.448 --> 20:14.565 position:50% align:middle I knew they were living in a country house in Kamensk, but I couldn't see the house. We left 17th Street on foot, went to see my daughter-in-law's mother's house, 20:14.565 --> 20:31.095 position:50% align:middle which was completely destroyed, and came to my husband's mother's house, which is in the city centre, not far from school 65. My husband's brother was also packing. 20:31.095 --> 20:45.800 position:50% align:middle It was clear that we were going to leave. The only question was when and how, but it had to be decided. It was raining heavily at the time, we were very wet, 20:45.800 --> 21:05.400 position:50% align:middle but the traffic was starting to move a little bit. We got from the city centre to Mukhina street by bus, followed my husband's colleagues, a physical education teacher. 21:05.400 --> 21:19.656 position:50% align:middle A bomb had fallen not far from their house, the house was in the same condition as ours - the roof, windows were gone, everything was cracked, the roof was leaking, 21:19.656 --> 21:42.061 position:50% align:middle but they were alive too. Later we tried to find out where the school documents were left, where my husband and his employees were hiding the certificates. 21:42.061 --> 21:58.674 position:50% align:middle The next day, we found out, and he warned his colleagues who could distribute it to children, and we began to decide how we would leave. 21:58.674 --> 22:22.618 position:50% align:middle We left on May 23, accompanied by the father of the boy who was taught by my husband, the student's father. Thanks to him, we crossed the border and in Tahanroh, 22:22.618 --> 22:34.754 position:50% align:middle this guy picked us up and brought us to another student of my husband's. We spent the night, took tickets to Rostov, and from Rostov we went straight to St Petersburg. 22:34.754 --> 22:58.076 position:50% align:middle In St Petersburg, we took a taxi to Ivanhorod. My mum and I were released quickly, and my husband was kept for interrogation. My husband didn't keep his phone, it broke, 22:58.076 --> 23:12.810 position:50% align:middle and the only thing I regretted was that I didn't take the card out of the phone; it had bank accounts and everything else. In principle, we solved this issue. 23:12.810 --> 23:33.178 position:50% align:middle There was no thought about it at the time. We walked to Narva and waited for my husband with my mother. All the policemen, all the border guards came up to us, 23:33.178 --> 23:46.317 position:50% align:middle asking why we were standing there, how we were doing, if we would come in. I said no, we were waiting and we would stand there until we got there. 23:46.317 --> 24:08.234 position:50% align:middle When we left, we bought a Russian phone card, so I could call my son and tell him that we were already in russia. We didn't cry then, we cried later. 24:08.234 --> 24:24.707 position:50% align:middle We waited for my husband, completed the paperwork, the transition, and were given specific recommendations on how to move on. Kyivstar came back into action, 24:24.707 --> 24:45.920 position:50% align:middle I could communicate normally with my son, and we slowly got to Germany. I mean, the way we travelled, we were on time even when we were supposed to be late. 24:45.920 --> 25:10.251 position:50% align:middle In Berlin, the train was a little late for Giessen, so we made it there, and the train from Giessen to Hagen was late, so we made it that way. 25:10.251 --> 25:28.267 position:50% align:middle In Hagen, my son made arrangements, and their new friend met us and took us to their place. On May 28, we arrived in Germany.