“There were explosions and sparks. We stayed in the basement and heard everything”

Before the full-scale invasion, Yurii Kuzmin lived at a boarding school in Toretsk. At that time, he was 14 years old. The evacuation of the children began on the evening of February 24. First, the children were taken to Transcarpathia. Later, they were transferred to Kyiv. It is not safe here either.

“When air raid sirens go off, we go down to the basement. The younger children are very scared, ‘What if it hits us?’ Volunteers come to us. They say it’s very scary in Toretsk. I don’t want to go back there,” says Yurii.