‘Our daughter got scared very much because of the shelling. She stopped speaking’

My husband and I had wanted to have a daughter so much. So, we got a daughter and did not want [children] after that as we were afraid because of the war. Yet, one more little son was born.

We have got three kids now: two sons and a darling girl. We are raising them; they go to preschool. It is scary. Sometimes there are some moments when it is very scary.

The war is going on. Now everything is closed down here: we cannot leave, so we stay on here. We cannot travel far to a town to some amusement park as we simply cannot afford it. All our money goes for food, diapers, and that’s it.

We play all together; we learn the alphabet getting ready for school. With my small daughter, we draw pictures. She was so scared. There was shelling and she got scared very much, so now she has some problems with speaking. She was very small, about half a year. We were playing. Some sound of shelling was heard. My husband said: ‘Let’s go to the cellar.’ I replied: ‘No, we won’t.’ We were delaying it, but when the electricity was out my husband convinced me to go to the cellar.

We just got down when the neighbour’s place was hit. They were left without windows, gates, fences, without anything. The windows were completely blown out. Their house was full of shell fragments. Our house was left without windows too. Our windowpanes were shattered completely, and the summer kitchen was damaged. Our daughter got scared because of the blast wave and now she speaks badly. We attend a speech therapist; she is treating her now.

Our daughter was silent for very long. She did not even say ‘Mum’. Though by the time she stopped speaking, she had already learnt to say ‘Mum’. Our elder son got scared too; and the daughter stopped speaking. We really feared that she would never speak again.