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No one expected it until the very last moment. There were already talks at that time that an attack was possible. There were announcements at our bus stops that some kind of brigades were being formed, people were gathering to ensure order in our village,

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at the level of our village. But no one could believe it until the last minute. We still hoped that it was just talk. Everyone was at home at that moment - my husband and children. When the first explosions happened, of course, everyone was scared. But we started thinking about safety, first of all, the safety of our children and parents.

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We had to keep ourselves busy, do something. It was impossible to go to work on the first day. No one could leave the area because everything was blocked. No minibuses, no cars. No one could go anywhere. And no one could come here. So, people started to leave their homes, looking for ways to engage themselves, to do something.

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After all, [we] live in a society. People started coming out, getting to know each other - people we didn't know. People started getting to know each other and helping each other with everything. In the early days, I immediately thought of the elderly people who could not buy food, could not leave their homes.

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A bakery started operating in our village. People started bringing flour, all the products needed for this [baking]. We started baking bread and just distributing it to people, delivering it. Trucks also came and offered people the most necessary food because the stores quickly ran out of stock, and nothing was delivered.

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There were days like that. As usual, everyone was thinking about the children. The question arose that we had to leave or at least take our children with us. Our children were already adults. At that time, the younger one was 10 years old and the older one was 15. We sat down with them to talk about this and everything that was happening.

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But all the children instantly grew up. And they grew up so much that they started thinking and speaking in words that I hadn't heard even from adults. My daughter said: "Mum, I don't want to regret what I will do if I leave. If we are destined to live, we will live. But I want us to live together. And if we are destined to die from a missile strike,

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then I agree. But I want to be with you." Her eldest son immediately supported her. After those words, we had no more questions for the children. And we did not try to take them away. They also walked around the village. We had some marks put on us, some events took place, as if sabotage reconnaissance groups were going around.

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The boys became active, the girls. They looked for these marks and passed the information to our groups, which were formed here at the village level. People united very quickly. Just in a few minutes, in a few hours. We already had guys standing in the centre of the village with their cars and bags. They were loading sand,

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setting up checkpoints, arranging all the entrances and exits to put people there so that no one else could enter our village. [We] heard the sounds of explosions. The rockets were also flying over us. We saw them trying to land, I think, here, above Vasylkiv. Planes were flying and drawing circles.

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Then my husband - he's a retired military man - told me that a circle is drawn where the troops are landing. We saw it. Then, we did not allow them to land. Our air defence system also worked in a matter of hours. Everything was already in place. We did not even know that it was air defence and how it worked.

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Sometimes, it all happened so close and fast that I screamed: "Take cover!" And they shouted at me: "What about you?" I answered: "I'll see where it goes". Because I didn't know how to behave. Nobody knew how to behave at that moment in those days. Because there was no such book written on how to behave if you were

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attacked by your neighbours in this way. I can't name them anymore for now. We had a cellar. It was made of concrete slabs. At first, we hid there for a few days. And then we realised when we saw in the media what the consequences could be after a missile or drone falls or an explosion occurs.

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Then we realised that it was also dangerous to hide there. So, after we opened a shelter in our cultural centre, we came here. And we still do. And we no longer hid in the cellar. But there were people who had houses with shelters. And they invited us. We would go to them and spend hours and hours of terrible times there.

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We were there with the children in their basement when it was very scary. Our guys organised themselves very quickly. They united in the Territorial Defence Unit. We all joined our Territorial defence unit. Because medics and the military have to work on the same front. So, we united and assisted the soldiers here, and our doctors instructed our fighters on the Territorial defence unit.

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On the second day, when we realised that we could neither leave nor go to work, all the doctors who lived and still live here started coming here to the outpatient clinic. I did not work here. Before the war started, I worked in Kyiv in hospitals. But we all came here. We realised that we shouldn't show off here but help people from the professional

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aspect of our lives. That's why all the doctors who used to live here and still do gathered here. We met even near the shop when we were standing in line for bread. They met our rehabilitation doctor. People who were not involved in medicine at all also joined us. They became volunteers. We have quite a lot of people here.

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A doctor came, an anaesthetist, our resuscitator, Oleksiy Mykolayovych Hulidin. He set up a hospital here. Before the renovation, we had a separate ward in that office next door, where mattresses were laid out, and tripods were used to provide first aid to the soldiers. There was our doctor, Dmitry Oleksandrovych Rozumiy, who worked here.

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Two doctors and me and the girls. Two more nurses came, and a doctor. A military hospital was set up here. They brought guys to us at night. They were brought after different situations that happened here. There was a shelling in Lisnyky, and they brought us a fighter for intensive care. By the time he arrived, we could not do anything to help him.

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But there were other resuscitation actions that were successfully performed, and people survived. It was in the first weeks. We realised that we had to be on duty here and that we had come here for a reason. So, we organised everything ourselves. No one asked us, no one ordered us. People united themselves; they wanted to.

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But there was nothing like that here. An outpatient clinic. Just cotton wool, alcohol, some gloves and syringes. That was it. So, we started to communicate with people. People began to bring us whatever they had at the time: brilliant green, iodine, bandages, tyres, mattresses, new pillows, blankets - anything.

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No one knew how much it would unfold, how close the enemy would come. So, we were preparing for the worst. Even though we hoped for the best, we were preparing, and people were helping us. Everyone who could and who could do what they could. Everyone brought medicines. We immediately sorted everything here and put it away.

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And here we kept everything to provide [aid]. We kept it specifically for the military, but all the people came to us. We never refused anyone. We just gave the medicines that we had and brought them back to people. Also, our doctor, Oleksiy Mykolayovych, our soldiers from the Territorial Defence Unit, and volunteers organised humanitarian aid.

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It was brought to us twice. But this happened much later. We were already provided with everything here. That's why we often organise aid for the frontline or hospitals. We sent all this humanitarian aid... Well, not all of it. We kept some of the most important things for ourselves. And then,

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we distributed everything to places where it was needed more than here. We can still buy something for ourselves. But at that time, there was nothing in pharmacies: no brilliant green, no bandages, nothing. We collected it all from people. They brought whatever they could. It was just [unbelievable]. I lived here for 17 years, 16 at the time.

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But I came, stayed home for a day, and then went back to work. Usually I was always at work. I didn't communicate much with anyone here, even though I had been living here for a long time. But it was enough for me. I knew people on the street, and that was it. And then we became so close! People have united. No one expected this.

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They came and hugged me. They brought some hot dishes here, because they knew that the lights were not switched on, we had curtains. But people knew. There are 5-storey buildings opposite us, and people saw that we were constantly on duty. They brought food, towels, blankets because it was winter, it was cold. It was so...

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Probably because of this hardiness, thanks to these people, we survived the first days of this invasion. Thanks to our people who have character, huge souls, and spirits, and the spirit of God. There were some moments every day, but probably the most emotional was when my daughter and I went out...

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It was the 4th or 3rd day after the full-scale invasion began. And we went out to buy food because we were running out quickly, and we didn't have much at home. We went out and walked in this direction, to the outpatient clinic, to the 5-storey buildings. Because on the other side, the shops were already empty, closed.

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And my daughter and I walked hand in hand until it was more or less quiet. We always chose a moment when it was quiet. Because then there were no alarms like we know now: ballistics, drones, or something else. We approached the road, and cars were coming towards us from Kyiv. One after another.

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A lot of cars. And we stood with our daughter, holding hands. We looked at these cars with the same eyes as the people in them looked at us. Because we were sad and scared that we were staying here, we had nowhere to go. We had no safe place, and we didn't want to leave.

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And they were looking at us with the same eyes - scared and sad because they had to leave their homes, their jobs - everything. The cars were overcrowded. The most precious thing is children and parents. There were also some blankets, dogs, cats. I even saw plants in the cars. People were carrying plants and just holding them.

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It was so touching! I remember it every time. People had nowhere to go; they just wanted to live. Just like now, we all just want to live. We all understood when we had something to compare: life in peace and how we live now. You always want to return to the best. And now that we have something to compare,

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we know the value of our freedom, our peaceful life. And we already know how to at least prevent this from happening in the future. We all have one wish, I am sure of it - to end the war. I don't know how yet. I don't know how I can contribute to that right now. Back then, I had one thought: I needed to work here and help people.

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And now I don't know. Now I'm waiting for the next wave to come to understand how I can help even more. Because if everyone makes their contribution and thinks about what they can do to end the war, then we will have a huge energy that we can direct against the people who attacked us. Hope, only hope,

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keeps me going. And there is always faith. Faith, after all. I believe that a miracle will happen. A miracle so huge and bright that everything will change. And the miracle, as I understand it, is our people. They are amazing. It's just that sometimes people don't show it. Or they just don't know how to show how amazing they are.