WEBVTT - Made with VTT Creator 00:05.573 --> 00:14.265 position:50% align:middle I didn't believe it at first, of course. I was going to work, preparing the child for the kindergarten. But I went through a couple of groups, 00:14.265 --> 00:26.243 position:50% align:middle and I realized it was really a war. I started having panic. I called to work and said I was not going out, I was not leaving my children alone. 00:26.243 --> 00:38.162 position:50% align:middle I didn't go to work, and we started collecting some things in our backpack. I didn't believe until the last moment that this would happen. 00:38.162 --> 00:47.827 position:50% align:middle I went to the market and started buying food. There was a lot of people. Everyone was in panic, running somewhere. 00:47.827 --> 00:56.974 position:50% align:middle And here the siren began. There was an explosion in the Vinnytsia district, and the sound reached the city. 00:56.974 --> 01:09.018 position:50% align:middle I started to panic even more. But still, I pulled myself together, packed our backpacks, and we continued to sit at home, reading the news. 01:09.018 --> 01:19.454 position:50% align:middle The next day, we still went to work, worked part-time, and hid. The husband stayed with the children because he worked unofficially 01:19.454 --> 01:29.467 position:50% align:middle and could miss the work. We were sitting here [at work]. Everyone had panic. I work in the banking sector. There was a lot of people. 01:29.467 --> 01:34.865 position:50% align:middle Everyone was withdrawing money, everyone was arguing, nervous, running around, not knowing what would happen or how. 01:34.865 --> 01:48.719 position:50% align:middle And then, after a few more explosions, I realized that I couldn't sit there and work, I had to take the children out. 01:48.719 --> 02:01.686 position:50% align:middle On March 8, my kids and I went to Poland. We stayed there until May, almost three months. The situation in the city seemed quiet, 02:01.686 --> 02:14.237 position:50% align:middle so we decided to come back. We returned in May. I went to work, and we worked less hours as well. And on July 14… 02:14.237 --> 02:25.432 position:50% align:middle On July 13, I had the day off, went to the hospital with my child, and on the 14 I went to work. It was a normal morning. It started with air raid alarms. 02:25.432 --> 02:39.498 position:50% align:middle At the beginning of 11 a.m., there was an alarm again. We closed our office, went outside, and just as we reached... We went outside, 02:39.498 --> 02:48.471 position:50% align:middle and I heard a whistling sound. I lift my head up. There were trees. I saw a missile – and that was it, after that I either fainted 02:48.471 --> 02:55.095 position:50% align:middle or regained consciousness. A colleague standing next to me was hit in the head by a piece of shrapnel. 02:55.095 --> 03:12.978 position:50% align:middle Then it was covered with a tree, and I realized that was it. Other colleagues were also scattered. I came to my senses, I was sitting. 03:12.978 --> 03:26.285 position:50% align:middle I was only wearing jeans, nothing. Dust, smoke, screams all around. I looked at my leg which just holding on the fragment of skin. 03:26.285 --> 03:36.043 position:50% align:middle The rescue officers came saying: “You got to get up.” I said: “I can’t get up.” I remember they [put] me on a stretcher, 03:36.043 --> 03:45.527 position:50% align:middle [carried] me into the ambulance, and there they put a mask on me. I would come to consciousness and then faint [again]. 03:45.527 --> 03:52.291 position:50% align:middle And I ended up in intensive care after all sorts of surgeries, because there were many shrapnel [wounds], the broken ribs, 03:52.291 --> 04:07.244 position:50% align:middle and a contusion of the lungs, and 2 eardrums flew out. And a lot of shrapnel wounds. In general, after the 10th operation I lost count, 04:07.244 --> 04:16.923 position:50% align:middle I just stopped counting. There were about 15-18 operations. Mostly they were related to the leg, because there were 2 bones broken. 04:16.923 --> 04:25.916 position:50% align:middle Almost 2 years have passed, and only now my bone has healed. The last operation was a month ago, they removed an iron pin from my leg. 04:25.916 --> 04:34.772 position:50% align:middle After resuscitation, I was taken to another hospital, to the thoracic department, where they saved my lungs, pumped water out of them. 04:34.772 --> 04:45.886 position:50% align:middle And when they recovered a little and I was able to breathe on my own, I was transferred to the trauma department, where I stayed for almost 1.5 years. 04:45.886 --> 04:52.362 position:50% align:middle That is, they performed the operation, I stayed in the hospital, they released me, [again] performed the operation. 04:52.362 --> 05:00.879 position:50% align:middle Because the leg didn't heal for a very long time. Ulcers and wounds appeared. Every time something new would come out of that leg. 05:00.879 --> 05:09.797 position:50% align:middle And [surgical] intervention was needed. I couldn't move on my own. At first I lay down for almost 3 months, I couldn't get up at all. 05:09.797 --> 05:21.159 position:50% align:middle Then they carried me in a wheelchair. Then there were walkers. After the walker, I switched to crutches, to two. 05:21.159 --> 05:30.969 position:50% align:middle Then I underwent a short rehabilitation in my city. I was already moving with one crutch. It was scary, of course, to give up one crutch. 05:30.969 --> 05:42.772 position:50% align:middle There were even panic attacks. Because how would I do without them? I got used to them. But slowly I started walking. 05:42.772 --> 05:55.122 position:50% align:middle My leg doesn't catch on anything any more, everything is more or less normal for me. [It took] a year before I was 05:55.122 --> 06:10.368 position:50% align:middle able to stand on both feet and walk. The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation was recommended to me by a girl who was also under rocket fire on July 14. 06:10.368 --> 06:21.013 position:50% align:middle She was here, and she advised me. She said: “Go ahead. You won't regret it.” That's how I got here. I am in the Borzhava institution 06:21.013 --> 06:39.285 position:50% align:middle in the Transcarpathian oblast. There is a very good attitude here, very nice staff. I see that I am getting better, that my scars have smoothed out a little. 06:39.285 --> 07:00.919 position:50% align:middle I go to clay therapy, visit the salt room, thermal pool, mineral pool, massage, magnetotherapy. I liked the massage and aqua gymnastics the most. 07:00.919 --> 07:10.523 position:50% align:middle After that incident, I went to a psychologist, and I am now on antidepressants, because I could not cope with my feelings on my own. 07:10.523 --> 07:34.059 position:50% align:middle It was hard for me. Now I also receive them here, but the state of mind [is different]. You look at all this, at nature – and it restores my energy. 07:34.059 --> 07:45.086 position:50% align:middle My husband was always with me, my mother-in-law was there, my parents, my children. They always supported me, 07:45.086 --> 07:53.029 position:50% align:middle helped me both morally and physically. The children didn’t know until the last moment. They were waiting for Mom from work. 07:53.029 --> 08:02.209 position:50% align:middle They didn't know. But the older one is already more mature, he read the news and saw that the missile hit the exact place 08:02.209 --> 08:10.312 position:50% align:middle where their mother worked. They called me, but I didn't have a connection. And that's how they found out. 08:10.312 --> 08:24.262 position:50% align:middle My children help me, because I know they need a healthy happy Mom. They motivate me. I go to work. 08:24.262 --> 08:37.400 position:50% align:middle I'm starting to feel about it the same way I felt before. I have a perfect team at work. I have great kids, a great husband. And that helps me.