Svitlana is 64 years old. She was born in Mariupol and lived almost her entire life in this city. Her yard, her building entrance, her neighbors – everything was familiar down to the smallest detail. On February 24, 2022, everything changed. Instead of morning silence – explosions. Instead of news – panic. Chaos began in the city. Stores closed, transportation stopped, people were running around looking for food, water, news. Svitlana recalls how people came with bottles to collect water right under the thunder of russian shelling. Sometimes they had to run because the explosions were getting closer, and shrapnel was whistling through the air. One day, a shell hit a high-rise building near her home. All the windows in her apartment were blown out. Mariupol, as she knew it, was disappearing before her eyes.