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‘I want to see children playing and having fun and not hiding from shells in basements’
In July 2014, my child and I were caught by shellfire. We were sitting on a bench near the house on Batishcheva Street in Kyivskyi district of Donetsk. Heavy artillery fire could be heard somewhere in the distance. Suddenly, I just realized that we needed to leave urgently. The kids obeyed my instruction and all of them ran home. At that moment, shells just began to land. One hit the 10-storey building and the other hit the garage. If we hadn't just run away then, we wouldn't be here now.
I had a big nerve storm. I was more afraid for my kid then for myself because she was just two and a half years old then. I went out for a walk with the kid and then that happened during the day time. It was very scary.
I then started having headache attacks. At first, I did not pay attention to it, but then I went to the hospital because I had a very bad headache. The doctors said it was because I caught cold. I had a medical check. I was told that I had a concussion.
We turned to the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation asking for some help with medicines because they were very expensive. We received help. Then, after some time, I got a call from the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation and I was offered to go to a sanatorium for rehabilitation
Everything worked out fine for the kid. I closed her ears, covered her with myself. Then, when it got a little quieter, a man helped me to quickly run with the pram to the entrance door. Then, we stayed in the hallway.
When a shelling begins, she says ‘Oh, Mom, a man shoots.’ I tell her: ‘No worries, these are just fireworks.’– ‘Are you sure?’ – ‘I am.’ Well, I need to soothe the child somehow.
We have a bomb shelter quite far away. If you have kids (I also had younger sister with me who was 9 years old), it would be quite a long time to run to the shelter. A shell could kill us before we make it there.
We hope that everything will be fine. We try to reassure ourselves that everything will be fine soon. Most of all, I feel sorry for children. They are not guilty of anything, certainly. We want that the next generation of children would not know what war is. I just want everything to be fine, I want to see children playing around and having fun and not hiding from shells in basements and entrance hallways. I want all children to stay alive and healthy.
When quoting a story, a reference to the source – the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation – is mandatory, as follows:
The Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation https://civilvoicesmuseum.org/
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