WEBVTT - Made with VTT Creator

00:05.444 --> 00:22.612 position:50% align:middle
This is Oleksandra, Alya. This is Alya. This is Karina. This is our little Alka. These three of them. This is David in our apartment. We were happy because we had three children, we had everything. And in one moment… now there is nothing. We are on the street.

00:22.612 --> 00:54.338 position:50% align:middle
On the fourth floor, there is our apartment. See? Where the air conditioner is. Our apartment, and next to it, another apartment. The fourth floor was burned out. They just drove an IFV (infantry fighting vehicle) onto it. They stopped here. This is where they drove it in.

00:54.338 --> 01:04.364 position:50% align:middle
We have now pushed it against the wall, but it used to stand like this, and they… They drove in, then stopped here. We had Christmas trees growing here, they cut them down. Four Christmas trees – they were huge, almost reaching the third floor.

01:04.364 --> 01:21.085 position:50% align:middle
They used them to cover their equipment. And here, on the first floor, they lived. They destroyed all these apartments. This is where we lived. Yes. And people lived in the apartments on the first floor. Here were their rations, clothes, military uniforms – all of that.

01:21.085 --> 01:47.200 position:50% align:middle
Look, there was such a hit here. A shell flew in here and stopped there. Accordingly, on March 5th, they fired from a tank. This is officially confirmed. Russian tanks fired, the occupiers. This is the neighbor’s apartment, next door to ours. Ours is right through the wall.

01:47.200 --> 02:21.152 position:50% align:middle
Accordingly, everything… Immediately, the gas boilers exploded. The boiler exploded on our side. Here was the kitchen. It blew up, the fire started. Then there was additional mortar shelling on the fifth floor. And so, two apartments on the fourth floor and eight apartments on the fifth floor

02:21.152 --> 02:43.116 position:50% align:middle
burned down. Here was the kitchen, here was the bedroom, here – the children's room. The children's room was only renovated in December, remodeled, updated cupboards, put in a new big wardrobe, made new beds to order. Many things were literally updated right before the war.

02:43.116 --> 03:03.525 position:50% align:middle
This was last year, on Constitution Day in June, in Lviv – the cups survived. The ones that stayed intact. Other than that – even all the dishes melted. And the glass roasting pan survived. If it had been a metal one, it would have melted completely. So – Lviv ceramics are great.

03:03.525 --> 03:21.263 position:50% align:middle
We said we had nowhere to live, and the city council allocated us this space. The children just don’t understand… We brought them, showed them. There were toys, everything – and now... Now they’re in Cherkasy region, because they’re sick. We took them to our parents.

03:21.263 --> 03:35.539 position:50% align:middle
In two weeks we’ll bring them back here. We’ll go and pick them up. Our oldest has asthma, I don’t know how we’re going to live here. We’re not going anywhere. We could’ve left a long time ago – but we don’t want to. Why? Because we are patriots of Ukraine.

03:35.539 --> 03:52.876 position:50% align:middle
We were born here, we don’t want to flee our own land. The kids are little, we understand they’d quickly adapt to a new place, learn the language. But then what? As they say – uproot and move back? Knowing that the situation here, both economically and socially,

03:52.876 --> 04:08.776 position:50% align:middle
is a bit worse than in Western countries, it would be even harder to come back. Leaving is hard, but coming back is even harder. That’s why we’re afraid of ending up living in another country. We want to live in Ukraine, build Ukraine.

04:08.776 --> 04:28.500 position:50% align:middle
So our children grow up here, our grandchildren. And so that our country blossoms. I believe our people deserve a normal life, normal relations with all the countries of the world. Our mission is to build a normal, free, democratic life.