1000 days Thousands of Stories

These ruins are all that remains of the kindergarten in Vorzel. The little girl Stefaniia. This was her kindergarten. On February 24, 2022, she turned 5 years old. The family was preparing for a celebration. But the child was expecting a different “gift”…

Oleksii is the author of the trident, which was installed on the Motherland Monument instead of the Soviet coat of arms. The famous sculptor fights on his front during the war. He creates models of equipment that disorient enemy artillery.

They delivered babies in a bomb shelter, rescued, treated and protected entire families! In March 2022, up to 130 people were in the shelter of Kyiv Maternity Hospital No. 1. Nataliia HONCHARUK, director, tells about the “war-born”.

The singer Jamala spent several days traveling to the west of Ukraine and then crossed the border on foot. During the war, Jamala performs actively at European stages to make the whole world aware of the cruelty of the Russian invaders.

Before the war, Kostiantyn and Vlada Liberov were engaged in photography. When the war began, the Liberovs continued to do what they love. But now the main characters of their works are residents of the hottest war spots.

One of the symbols of resilience of Ukrainians is a clay rooster on a locker that hangs over a precipice on the ruins of a house that was shattered. The owner of the rooster, Nadiia SVATKO, lost her home and almost died under shelling.

She covered her two-month-old daughter with her body during the shelling. The missile hit a residential area of Kyiv. In the room, where the family was, a window and a wall were blown out by the blast wave. The mother took 24 fragments upon herself.

Iryna Romanchenko, an artist from Hostomel, lived through real hell. In the first days of the invasion, the artist’s house was destroyed by mines. There was infighting, there was not enough food, they ran out of water. The invaders seized the cottage town.

From March 1 to March 3, 2022, the occupiers dropped unguided FAB bombs on residential areas. Half of the high-rise buildings was damaged by them. The debris fell into the basement where people were hiding.

When the war began, six-year-old Ania was with her grandmother near Kyiv. The village turned out to be like on an island between the Chernobyl zone, the territory occupied by Russians and the Kyiv Sea. There was only one way to Kyiv – by boat.

The family lived in Irpin town near Kyiv. They are IDPs from Donetsk. The man left for Donetsk to visit his mother. His wife and his children remained in Irpin and died under mortar shelling during the evacuation attempt.

24-year-old Diana, together with her mother, husband Sashko and his younger brother Maksym, tried to evacuate from Chernihiv. Their car was shot by the Russian military.

Serhiy Sotnychenko, a Ukrainian filmmaker, spent a month under shelling in Irpin town. All this time the town was on fire and kept turning into ruins. He put his elderly mother on a garden cart and fled from the besieged town.

Russian soldiers shot her husband in front of their child. Her son survived just by miracle. His hood saved him from the fatal bullet. Alla Nechyporenko went through real hell in the occupied Bucha town, but she still cannot imagine his life in any other place...

35 days in occupied Irpin under fire and 80 cats under her care. This was the beginning of a full-scale war for Kateryna Amosova, Doctor of Medicine, professor, cardiologist, scientist and daughter of the legendary scientist Mykola Amosov.

Natalya could make pizza from dough on water and some canned food. Under incessant shelling, she cooked food for all the inhabitants of the bomb shelter every day. For quite a while, kids could not remember her name, so Natalya suggested that they call her Aunt Soup.

On 9 March 2022, an expectant mother, Anastasia, together with her husband, her younger brother, and her parents, was in the maternity hospital in Mariupol. When a Russian plane dropped an aerial bomb, Anastasia was in the basement.

Yevheniya worked at the Drama Theatre in Mariupol for many years. She, her husband and their daughter were among the first who happened to be in the bomb shelter here when the Russian army began to destroy Mariupol. Then she became a superintendent of the bomb shelter.

Anne Frank from Mariupol – this is how journalists from all over the world call Olena Zahreba. A 15-year-old girl recorded her video diary in the besieged city of Mariupol. Day after day she showed how the world she had been so accustomed to was collapsing.

"These photos are a small part of what happened to me and my family in Mariupol for 62 days - from February 24 to April 30. This is my photo diary.

Tetiana worked for a local newspaper. She joined pro-Ukrainian rallies and, together with other citizens, took to the streets of Melitopol to oppose the russian troops.

Halyna Beliaieva, a teacher from Melitopol, was one of the first to participate in a street rally against the russian occupiers. In just a few days, these Freedom Actions turned into a resistance of thousands of civilians.

Missile attacks on Melitopol woke Mila up early in the morning on February 24, 2022. Convoys of enemy tanks were heading for the city. Russians hoped that Melitopol and its residents would surrender under this pressure. But the locals did not retreat.

Nights in the bathroom instead of a soft bed, people with guns on the streets of her hometown and columns of tanks. This is how 9-year-old Vlada Mukhina remembers the beginning of the full-scale war.

Tetiana is a teacher of Ukrainian language and literature. The woman survived the first fights for Melitopol, the occupation of the city by russians and a difficult road through a mined field.

At the age of 24, Ihor Sereda saw so many deaths that not every elderly person would experience this in their entire life.

Literally 300 bodies passed through his hands. Bodies of tortured and killed residents of Bucha and Irpin towns.

The apartment block in which Vitalii Lytvyn lived was chosen by Putin’s troops as their base. Here they lived, sorted and distributed their trophies: equipment, jewelry, people’s belongings. About a hundred apartments were damaged.

Before her eyes, a Russian sniper killed her mother and the occupiers kidnapped her father from the scene of the shooting. They took him for interrogation with a bag put on his head.

The woman was riding a bicycle. She believed that she would live on. Unfortunately, the worst thing happened. A photo from the scene of the tragedy, which shows a hand with a manicure, went viral around the world. The daughter of the victim shares her terrible memories.

Kateryna Savenko died on April 4th 2022. Her husband, Vitaliy, had died on March 29th. On that day their house was shelled, causing them to suffer fatal injuries. Katya had kept a diary until March 29th. Let's read it. In our voices.

"War has evil eyes! People are going mad! Hunger! Fear! Despair! If only we knew when this madness will end?»

«What unit of measurement can truly quantify human sorrow? How to measure the distance to God, to whom millions of impoverished people send their pleas? Is there a name for the inhumanity of the person who started this senseless bloody war?»

«My dear sister, I will survive to convey the truth to you and others. And that is my fate…»

«"Mom! I am injured. In hospital #1. The doctors have all left. My leg is broken, and my face is torn apart. Vitalik has died. Nadya is in the hospital's basement. Help!"»

The well-known TV presenter Oleksii Sukhanov told the story of Yuliia Kulchytska. Yuliia from Konstiantynivka is one of those who managed to survive the shelling of the railway station in Kramatorsk.

She was travelling to Dnipro, fleeing shelling attacks. Nineteen-year-old Anastasia Shestopal is one of those who survived the Russian missile attack on the railway station in Kramatorsk. The girl lost her leg.

On 8 April, Natalia Stepanenko, her son, and her daughter, were supposed to board a train at the railway station in Kramatorsk and flee the war. When russian missiles attacked the city, they happened to be at the epicentre of the explosion.

Olha has two little daughters. That’s why after the arrival of the rocket at Kramatorsk railway station she immediately decided that she would go with her children and mother.

From the first days of the full-scale war, Olha Dudina helped her native Kramatorsk survive. But the most terrifying moment, says Olha Dudina, was the rocket attack on the railway station in Kramatorsk.

From Donetsk to Rostov, from Rostov to Moscow, from Moscow to Turkey, from Turkey to Poland, and from Poland to Kyiv. This is the itinerary 10-year-old Illia and his grandmother travelled to come back home, to Ukraine.

The girl was later forcibly sent to Bilhorod to study. The child had tried to get to Ukraine several times. Only at the third attempt she managed to get home and hug her mom.

The village where he lived was under occupation. His father persuaded Oleksiy to go to a camp in Russia. As promised, it was only for ten days. But the camp lasted for almost a month. The children were not returned. Later, they sent him to school...

In April 2022, russian soldiers captured Izium. In the summer, they began to take children to russia. Parents were promised that it was for the recovery and not for the long time. Yevhen's parents had no choice.

Russian troops captured Balakliia. The city was under occupation for more than six months. Daria's parents were offered to send their eldest daughter to a camp in the Krasnodar Territory. While the child stayed in russia, Balakliia was liberated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

On November 5, 2023, the russian army launched a missile attack against Odesa. The attack damaged 6 architectural monuments in the city. The shelling also damaged the building of the Odesa National Art Museum, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the first days of the full-scale war, russian rockets hit the Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum in Kyiv region. The museum staff were able to save their pride, namely a collection of paintings by Maria Prymachenko, a very famous folk artist of Ukraine.

Victoriia is the deputy director of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Museum of Local Lore. The enemy was approaching too fast and that evacuation was necessary. On 4 March, the first stage of the evacuation of the most expensive exhibits took place.

“We removed all the paintings by Kuindzhi, Aivazovsky, Dubovsky, and icons too. We locked up the museum. The keys are still with me, but I never came to the museum again,” recalls Tetiana Buli, the head of the Kuindzhi Art Museum in Mariupol.

Khortytsia Island was probably the first in the country to evacuate its museum collections. Museum collection attendants, researchers, and restorers did everything possible to evacuate the most valuable exhibits urgently.

Yelyzaveta has eight children. They left Bakhmut. But Yelyzaveta's sister stayed there. A shell hit her apartment. Her husband was killed, and her sister underwent 10 skin transplants, lost an eye and went deaf in one ear.

The war took away a lot from Natalia. First of all, her health. She was wounded in the legs, later underwent surgery, but was left disabled. She lost her job, lost her home. Her minor daughter also became disabled.

Victoriia recalls her native Bakhmut with tears in her eyes. Not only her heart, but also her sister remained there. There is no information about whether she is alive.

Tetiana Voloshyna joined the volunteer centre. At that time people from Popasna, Rubizhne, and Lysychansk came to Bakhmut to escape the shelling. But the situation began to escalate, and civilians were killed by shelling.

She survived the fierce fighting in Bakhmut. For almost a year after the start of the full-scale invasion, the Butko family did not dare to evacuate, hoping that Bakhmut would survive.

The photo showing a girl in a sheepskin coat evacuating disabled dogs from Irpin town to Kyiv went viral all over the world. The work by American photographer Christopher Occhicone was published in March 2022 by the Wall Street Journal.

He evacuated residents of Irpin town and saved hundreds of pets under shelling. Actor and showman Oleksiy Surovtsev has been rescuing cats and dogs abandoned due to the war since March 2022.

The animal protection organization UAnimals has been rescuing animals from the frontline territories. A team of about fifty volunteers have saved hundreds of animals: dogs, bears, and lions.

Anastasiya and Vladyslav spent more than a month under occupation on their farm near Hostomel. Together with the young milker Ilya, they were saving their livestock of goats and poultry.

In April 2022, Maria Fomyntseva and her dog Bonia became social media stars. They became popular because of a photo taken by Oleh Pereverzev of an elderly woman with a dog wearing a headscarf. It was the scarf that saved Bonia from a concussion.

Writer, artist, and embroiderer Olena Maliarenko, during the occupation embroidered T-shirts and shirts based on Mariia Pryimachenko's designs, and ridiculed the occupiers in her satirical notes, thus saving the people of Kherson from despair.

Anzhela Slobodian, a journalist, was held in a detention center in occupied Kherson for a month. Starting from the first day of war and until her arrest in July, Anzhela had continued to provide news coverage and broadcast live from Kherson.

The unique story of the Kherson Drama Theater and its director, who continues to popularize Ukrainian culture during the war. Let's talk about the occupation, interrogations of russian special services and the importance of Ukrainian territories.

Maryna Savchenko is a journalist who has been working on television for more than 20 years. She remembers the enemy aircraft flying over Kherson, how the suburbs were shelled. Soldiers of the occupation army were walking and shooting people.

The director of the Kherson M. Kulish Theater Serhii Pavliuk delivered humanitarian aid. He was streaming from Svobody Square in occupied Kherson, announcing a peaceful protest. But in addition to peaceful protests, Serhii had to go to interrogations.

On January 14, 2023, russia committed another terrible crime against Ukraine. The attack on the residential building in Dnipro is a terrible tragedy that resonated in everyone's heart. The story of the girl who's photo spread all over the world.

Katia spent 20 hours under the rubble. She could not hear the voices of the rescuers and could not shout because she has been hearing impaired since childhood. She was at home with her husband and one-year-old son. Only Katia survived...

Svitlana Figurna buried her six family members killed by a missile strike in Dnipro on 14 January 2023. On that day, the family celebrated a holiday. They got together first after a long break. After the explosion, everyone was under the rubble.

A missile attack on a building in Dnipro killed 46 people, including 6 children. 72 apartments were destroyed. Among them was Vira VYSHTAK's apartment, where she lived for over 30 years. Vira's parents were at home at the time of the attack.

MBA teacher and business consultant Oleh Moskalenko was captured by the russians. Oleh was beaten and tortured, and then, handcuffed, he was left to freeze to death. He testified in The Hague.

The body of children's writer Volodymyr Vakulenko was found in one of the graves of a mass burial in Izyum. The story of Volodymyr was researched by writer Victoria Amelina. Victoria died during the Russian shelling of Kramatorsk.

Hanna Vorosheva is a successful businesswoman from Mariupol who, since the outbreak of the war, has directed her efforts and resources to helping local residents. She was captured by the russian army, after which 100 days of captivity followed.

Her native Kyinka was already engulfed in fire when Svitlana Kachan and her child left for a quiet and seemingly safer village... But she ended up under occupation. Svitlana's husband was almost killed, and the child was interrogated...

When it became completely unbearable to stay in Mariupol, the family left on an old Zhiguli car. At the checkpoint, Olena Perkova and her sister were searched. Some posts with patriotic content were found in their phones. They had their hands tied...

Dozens of architectural monuments, museums and historical buildings were flooded as a result of the disaster at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. Polina Raiko's house-museum in Oleshky, Kherson region, was also under the water.

Vasyl left Oleshky when russians blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station. Huge waves swept away everything in their path, and the water level reached five meters. Vasyl's house was flooded and lot of money is needed to restore it.

Tetiana is an IDP from the Kherson region. Once under occupation, she refused to leave for russia. After the Kakhovka dam was blown up, her village was in the path of a flood. Houses were falling down one by one.

After the dam of the Kakhovska Hydroelectric Power Plant not only people but also animals were in the water trap. Kherson volunteer Yevhen Tsarikovskyi was one of the first to rush to help, despite the fact that he could not swim…

During all months of the occupation of Kherson, the only grocery shop in the River Port area did not work for only one day. "Market" survived the occupation, was completely flooded after the explosion of the Kakhovka HPP, survived 4 arrivals and continues to work.

Through his eyes, the world has seen Mariupol amidst the war – the dead children, the consequences of the air strike on the maternity hospital, the heroism of doctors, and the suffering of civilians. War correspondent Yevhen Maloletka spent 20 days in the besieged Mariupol.

Oleksandr BIELASH worked as the head of the anaesthesiology department. It was he who, during the resuscitation of little Eva, who was the first child to die, appealed to putin. The hellish realities were included in the documentary 20 Days in Mariupol.

Tymur Chumaryn, a surgeon, had been saving civilians and soldiers under daily shelling and at the risk of his life until March 16, 2022. "I lived in the surgery block. We were wounded every day, mostly with shrapnel wounds. A lot of children".

Ihor Zolotous, a neurosurgeon at the Mariupol Regional Intensive Care Hospital, had been saving urban residents until March 23. The first wounded were civilians. Most of the injuries were gunshot, shrapnel, and mine-blast wounds.

During the full-scale invasion, Dmytro worked as an intern at the maternity hospital where a russian plane dropped a bomb on March 16. "I felt something hit the hospital - the building shook. There were many wounded".

The work of power engineers was important even before massive shelling, but many people have only started to notice and appreciate it now. Tetiana works at one of DTEK’s enterprises. She says she feels needed now more than ever before.

Ihor works at one of DTEK’s enterprises and feels like he is at the front line. The energy front. russia has repeatedly launched missile strikes at his company. He had to restore the plant’s operation in extreme conditions.

Svitlana is the head of the HR department at one of DTEK's energy companies. She recalls how, from the first day of the war, huge efforts were made to evacuate employees from the war-torn regions.

Serhiy comes from a dynasty of power engineers that dates back 145 years. And Serhiy came to work at the station at the age of 16. And for almost 30 years, he has been helping people live a normal life. But the aggressor country wants to prevent this.

At work - like at the front. Employees of energy companies are in constant danger. Wind storms are frequent, and shells can arrive at any moment.

Little Liza from Pidhorodne will stay two years forever. The first, desired, and long-awaited child in the Prykhodko family died under the rubble on June 3, 2023.

They loved to sleep in each other's arms, and he loved to film these moments of happiness. This story is an incredible pain. In the final part of this story, you will hear shocking details about the Shahed that killed 7 parents and 5 children in Odessa on March 2, 2024.

Yana was in the maternity hospital. Russian troops were already in the town. They started shelling the hospital. Four doctors were covering the window with their backs. A doctor and a midwife delivered the baby by the light of a flashlight.

Iryna was practically at the epicentre of a Russian missile attack on Vinnytsia. She had moved there from Kyiv after the enemy invasion began. On that day, Iryna was taking her daughter Lisa to a speech therapy session.

He entered war-torn Mariupol. Kyiv resident Eduard was constantly scrolling through a map in his head: it was important not to forget how to get to the place where his children were. There was neither a connection nor a navigator, only dead bodies, and destroyed houses around.

Volodymyr Zhovnir is the general director of the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital. He is the only one who knows what damage the Russian missile strike on July 8, 2024, caused to the hospital and the children who were in it.

A hero of our time! A Ukrainian doctor from Ohmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv who became known worldwide because of the tragic events of July 8, 2024, and also found himself at the centre of an information war due to a fake video spread by russian propagandists.

Six-year-old Masha was undergoing surgery when a russian missile hit the children's hospital in Kyiv... The girl survived, but her grandfather Volodymyr was among the many victims.

Oleksandr works near Okhmatdyt, and on July 8 2024, he arrived at the children's hospital after a rocket hit. Oleksandr filmed what was happening to bring it to the world community. And then he began to help people.

Iryna and her daughter immediately rushed to Okhmatdyt after the Russian missile attack. She couldn't imagine doing anything else when she saw the bloody children being taken out of the hospital.

“Mom, I want to perform again," said the seven-year-old Sasha Pascal after her performance at the first competition. The girl performed with a prosthetic leg - she had lost her leg a year before, when russian missiles were fired at a peaceful neighborhood.

Nika Shurda won gold at the European Junior Diving Championship. This victory was after volunteering in besieged Mariupol under shelling and after the terrible news that her father, a boxing coach and an international judge, was in captivity.

On the night of June 1, 2023, Kyiv was attacked by Iskander missiles. On the porch of the children’s hospital near the closed shelter, 9-year-old Vika Ivashko died together with her mother... Near there was a sports club where Vika practiced judo.

Maryna Aleksiiva is a bronze medalist of the Olympic Games in synchronized swimming. She and her twin sister, also a champion, left Kharkiv under shelling. And russian athletes wrote: "You don't understand anything, that's all for the good...".

Yana Lebiedieva, track and field athlete, silver medallist of the Paralympics in Tokyo, spent 42 days in occupied Kherson. Her husband is a multiple prize-winner in the Ukrainian table tennis championships. Both spouses move on wheelchairs.

Serhiy Chernobryvets, an emergency medical service paramedic from Mariupol, was rescuing women after the explosion of the maternity hospital. Through an open wound from the fragments, he saw how a seven-year-old girl’s heart was beating.

Traumatologist Dmytro Pasternak recounts months of his work at municipal hospital no. 3 in Mariupol amid constant bombing attacks and facing the lack of the necessary medicines and equipment.

Dmytro Fedorenko was awarded the Order For Courage. President Volodymyr Zelenskyi came to present the award to the Mykolaiv emergency hospital. He was so amazed at how doctors saved lives.

Svitlana Loboda left the house every time with pockets full of medicines. The doctor knew: she would surely meet patients on the streets of the occupied city whose lives these medicines would save.

Before the war, Nataliia Leliukh, a practising OB-GYN, writer, and blogger, saw the miracle of the birth of a new life almost every day. During the full-scale war, she became a volunteer doctor.

Yuliia Vasylenko is a gymnasium principal who remained in the occupied territories. The occupation authorities demanded that she work in a new way. Faced with resistance, the invaders began to threaten her.

"We lost students, post-graduate students, and lecturers. They died,” recalls the vice-rector of the Pryazovskyi State Technical University Olena Khadzhinova.

On March 2, at 1:00 a.m., the headmistress of school No. 29 was in the waiting room. Children were playing on the soccer field, and suddenly there was a clap...

Valeriia Hukova is a primary school teacher. When the city was shaking from the explosions, she continued to teach children. For 42 days, Valeria taught online classes from the shelter.

Students and staff were killed, and buildings were destroyed. The consequences of the Russian invasion for Mariupol State University are shocking.