“My first question was not “how are you?”, but “Dad, are they surely not shooting here?”

That happened four years ago. The war began. My dad was on a business trip, and he did not see all the hostilities. They were shooting far away, yet it was quiet here, but the situation deteriorated quickly.

Everyone fled the city wherever they could.

My mother, sister and brother and I could not leave for a long time. But one day a bullet [shell] hit our house and completely blew out our neighbors' apartment. We were very frightened, quickly dressed and ran to the basement, sat there for 4-5 hours.

My mother ran to gather things - my uncle came for us and we left for Kharkov, to my father.

Brother and sister got out of the car joyful, and when I got out, my first question was not “how are you?”, but "Dad, they surely don't shoot here?"

I was so scared that my dad was getting me out of this state for a month. Hence I went to school in October. Then my dad was fired and we moved to Mariupol.

Then I found out that my godfather had died, they hid it from me for a whole year, I cried a lot. A year later, I calmed down. Now I go to school, I study well. I am very happy, I have many friends. I'm drawing. Sometimes it happens that I feel sad for Donetsk, and for my godfather. I have another sister, she is already three years old, brother is seven, sister is nine.

I wish all children that they never saw the war and not to know what the war is. Let them live in tranquility, not in fear.