“The child was lying under her mother, she covered her with her body. All of them are dead”

In March 2022, near the village of Havronshchyna in Kyiv region, the occupiers opened fire on a civilian car that was part of a convoy of refugees. Five people were killed, among them — a two-year-old child. A resident of the village, Olha Yashchuk, recounts how her fellow villagers buried the dead and sheltered the wounded.

She recalls how they could not go outside without white armbands: because without them, the russian invaders could shoot as well. The woman’s house was located on the outskirts, and because of that, it became a target for the russians. But Olha survived all the shelling and never left her home.

On the day the village was liberated, Olha did not immediately recognize the soldiers as Ukrainian troops. What surprised the woman even more was when she suddenly saw her son’s friend — Andrii — among the defenders. Then came hugs and tears of joy, and also a kind of happiness that cannot be described. As a memento of what they had lived through, Andrii and his comrades left Olha a “trophy” — a torn-off hatch from a russian tank. A few months after the meeting in Havronshchyna, the reconnaissance soldier Andrii would be killed in battle.