"It was a rain of fire"

I have lived in the village of Chernenko for 15 years already. In 2014, the first checkpoint was set up here. And in the summer, we saw a military helicopter flew. We have never seen anything like this. It flew straight through our homes and in direction of the checkpoint. It must have been ordered to hit the post. It dropped something on it. This was my first war encounter.

Then the shelling started. It felt like they were 20 meters away. The roaring sounds were terrible! They flew in the direction of Mariupol. Then, in two weeks, we heard another  whizzing sounds of shells. I just fell to the ground, and it exploded somewhere nearby. I managed to jump into the cellar.

 In autumn, I got on the bus in the morning, closed the house, and suddenly saw the glass shatter. All the windows in the house crashed! I wondered how it could have happened? No noise, no nothing, only the glass falling. It turned out that there was a Grad [projectiles] attack. It was a rain of fire, dust, and no road in sight.

The weather was clear, everything was covered with a grey fog. And I stayed outside since I closed the house. I realize that I didn't have time to open the door. Moreover, I didn't have time to get into any cellar. I just squeezed into the wall. Then I heard constant shelling attacks, on and on. I could tell you hundreds of such stories

Then winter came. I didn't have windows or doors in the house left. They were knocked out by wave blows. We slept in a 'hut'. I would put on everything I had. That is how I passed the winter.

 We received regular food packages from the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation. When you know that there is someone who cares for you exceeds all the pain. We don't have a store here. We have no one to rely on. At least, there is one name in the world – you know that they will listen to your needs there.