"My daughter and I were hit in the legs by shrapnel"

My daughter, 15-year-old Polina, and I walk past the shelled houses on the outskirts of Sloviansk without looking up. She is still afraid to look around.

In May 2014, when we were returning from the store with her, shells started exploding nearby, all of a sudden. We didn't have time to hide in someone else's entrance. We were both shot in the legs. I had a wound in right leg, and she had a wound in the left leg. The boy was killed before our eyes. It was a miracle we didn't get shrapnel in our heads.

I had an operation in Sloviansk. Polina had to be taken to Kharkiv. A large fragment passed just two millimetres from the femoral artery. She could have died straightway.

After the operation, Polina returned to Sloviansk, but we could not live like we used to in a peaceful city. She suffered from sharp pain because of the shots in the leg and the heel. She could get up at night and wake me up by screaming. The Rinat Akhmetov Humanitarian Center offered rehabilitation for Polina. The results were visible immediately.