WEBVTT - Made with VTT Creator 00:05.361 --> 00:19.004 position:50% align:middle It so happened that I went to Mariupol. My younger daughter was about to give birth, and I went to help her. I had just arrived, and the very next day, 00:19.004 --> 00:34.674 position:50% align:middle the war began. My granddaughter was born three days after the war started. She was born in the maternity hospital. By the grace of God, we were lucky 00:34.674 --> 00:42.664 position:50% align:middle — we survived. We managed to take my daughter and the baby out just in time, because the maternity hospital was overcrowded — 00:42.664 --> 00:58.776 position:50% align:middle there were so many women in labor. We got them out, and then the hospital was hit. Many people died — both medical staff and mothers — it was horrific. 00:58.776 --> 01:11.056 position:50% align:middle For nearly a month, my older daughter was also in Mariupol with her child — he wasn’t even two years old. All three of them had just recovered from COVID. 01:11.056 --> 01:27.452 position:50% align:middle I hadn’t seen them in a long time, and then they arrived. Everyone was in shock — the city was under constant shelling, one strike after another. All the utilities were gone: 01:27.452 --> 01:45.145 position:50% align:middle gas, electricity, water. We had to move down to the lower floors and then to the basement with the baby, because it was so terrifying. Planes were flying overhead 01:45.145 --> 02:00.787 position:50% align:middle — it was horrible. We stayed there for about a month. Can you imagine, a newborn baby living in a basement for a month? My daughter stepped outside for 02:00.787 --> 02:14.235 position:50% align:middle some fresh air and fainted, because there was no air, no oxygen. How could we even think about breastfeeding? The second grandchild was very scared, 02:14.235 --> 02:24.235 position:50% align:middle because he was not yet two years old, so he was very small. When the shelling happened, the houses would resonate, and the whole building would shake like this. 02:24.235 --> 02:32.792 position:50% align:middle It was terrifying and dreadful. The baby would cry when the planes were flying overhead. We would quickly run into the entrance of the building 02:32.792 --> 02:44.971 position:50% align:middle and tell him that it was just the rain starting. Then my son-in-law was running around the city trying to find a way out. Everywhere there were patrols, 02:44.971 --> 02:56.840 position:50% align:middle but there was no local administration, no one at all. I approached each patrol and asked how we could leave the city. They didn’t answer because 02:56.840 --> 03:07.910 position:50% align:middle they didn’t know anything themselves — maybe they weren’t allowed to speak. Finally, my son-in-law was running through the city under shelling 03:07.910 --> 03:20.929 position:50% align:middle and met an acquaintance who had just come from Melekino. He said there was a way out to Melekino, so we could leave. 03:20.929 --> 03:33.555 position:50% align:middle He quickly came home and told us to take everything we needed. The car was already ready, and we still needed to notify our relatives. 03:33.555 --> 03:46.865 position:50% align:middle His sister was staying in the city with her son, and my younger daughter was with her child. So we quickly gathered everything and went around to inform them. 03:46.865 --> 03:58.868 position:50% align:middle We pulled up to the building and told the people that there was a way out to Melekino, and everyone quickly started packing. By the time we were all leaving, 03:58.868 --> 04:11.482 position:50% align:middle there was already a huge convoy. Driving through the city was terrifying — the destruction was unimaginable. It felt like something out 04:11.482 --> 04:29.996 position:50% align:middle of the movie Apocalypse — broken trolley wires, burned-down houses, stores. As we were driving, there was airstrikes above us. It was horrifying. 04:29.996 --> 04:42.386 position:50% align:middle We must have recited the Lord's Prayer a thousand times. We covered the children, because the cars had no windows — they were all shattered — 04:42.386 --> 04:57.728 position:50% align:middle we covered them with whatever we could find. At the exit from the city, we got a flat tire. But the people leaving — I wasn’t expecting that. 04:57.728 --> 05:10.132 position:50% align:middle They stopped and asked how they could help, because it was getting late, and after all, it was March — it gets dark early, and we needed to reach 05:10.132 --> 05:18.025 position:50% align:middle he first checkpoint to be allowed through. At the checkpoints, there were already russian soldiers, and a tank was stationed at the exit. 05:18.025 --> 05:27.192 position:50% align:middle We were really scared to drive, because we didn’t know if it was an active tank or not. Then, when the first oncoming car passed, it stopped, 05:27.192 --> 05:34.869 position:50% align:middle and they said we could go through, but we had to stay on the right side of the road because the left side was mined. On the shoulders of the road, 05:34.869 --> 05:45.643 position:50% align:middle there were already burned-out private cars. When we asked how to get out, we heard people saying that all cars were being shot at, 05:45.643 --> 05:58.537 position:50% align:middle so it was impossible to drive out of the city in any direction. That’s how we managed to leave. My son-in-law’s parents lived near Berdyansk, so we went there. 05:58.537 --> 06:11.761 position:50% align:middle Thank God, we made it safely. My mother was still in Vuhledar, and I couldn’t get to her either from the side of Volnovakha or from the side of Zaporizhzhia, 06:11.761 --> 06:31.698 position:50% align:middle neither in one direction nor the other. After two or three months, I managed to find someone who agreed to go through all the checkpoints. 06:31.698 --> 06:44.527 position:50% align:middle We passed more than 100 checkpoints to get to Zaporizhzhia, first russian checkpoints, then ours. When we entered Ukrainian territory, 06:44.527 --> 07:00.964 position:50% align:middle there was a zone that was uncontrolled by anyone, and we had to take care of ourselves. The russian checkpoint let us through. We even had to spend 07:00.964 --> 07:16.991 position:50% align:middle the night under shelling until it was our turn to be allowed through. We went, picked up my mother, and then returned the same way, because my children were still there. 07:16.991 --> 07:30.205 position:50% align:middle Thank God, my mother was strong, she endured the whole journey, despite her age and high blood pressure. Then we stayed in Berdyansk for a while. 07:30.205 --> 07:45.725 position:50% align:middle When the occupiers started going around with this referendum, when it was supposed to take place, we didn’t open our doors. One day, I went outside 07:45.725 --> 08:01.752 position:50% align:middle and saw a soldier and two women coming in. They were going door to door collecting signatures, like for voting, and to vote, people had to sign. 08:01.752 --> 08:15.127 position:50% align:middle But I stayed outside until they left the building, and only then could I go back into the apartment. Like everyone else, we didn’t open the doors. 08:15.127 --> 08:31.226 position:50% align:middle We decided to leave for Ukrainian territory because it was unsafe there, and we didn’t want to participate in it. That’s how we ended up in Odesa. 08:31.226 --> 08:55.560 position:50% align:middle We left under shelling too, and we were scared driving through that area, but thank God, we made it out safely. We’ve been in Ukraine for almost three years.