“Children know that only in the basement they can hide from bullets and fragments”

Every day, nine- year-old Zhenya asks me when the war will finish, and we will live as before. 

She and her sister are very frightened whenever there is shooting. And they know that only in the basement they can hide from bullets and fragments. The worst thing is when [the shell] lies nearby. The windows are shaking, the girls are instantaneously in tears, they are pressed against each other.

I am a single mother with many children, I live on the outer edge of the village, from where it is only a few kilometers to the front line. All our neighbors left long ago due to constant shelling. Instead of friends, children only have pets.

Before the war, I worked at Donetsk airport, but now I am staying at home with children. I don’t even have enough money for food - an income of four thousand hryvnias. My children do not dream of new dresses or toys; it is important for them that the war ends soon.