The war found Viktoriia near Kyiv, in Vyshneve. "My mother said:  get up, get dressed, it has begun." Two months before the invasion, her father had died — and the family was left without a man to rely on. Explosions, panic, moving to Boiarka, then trying to go farther, already with their pets. "The cat was sitting inside my dad’s jacket, only his little face sticking out." On the overcrowded platform, a soldier asked Viktoriia: "May I pet him?" It was, Viktoriia says, like a breath of humanity amid the chaos.

After that came Khmelnytskyi, and back home — the destroyed dacha of her grandfather. But fortunately, everyone survived. Already a student, Viktoriia says she wants to stay in Ukraine and be a journalist: "Because this is my frontline."