"We've been hiding in the basement all summer"

We were sitting in the basement of the clinic, even though the walls are thick — about a meter and a half or two… They built a special bomb shelter there. The walls were shaking, and people were walking around, not sleeping half the night. We've been hiding in the basement all summer.

One day a woman came with a dog, a blind dog. She said, "All that's left of the house is ruins." Half the village was destroyed. It was rumoured that 38 people were killed. They said that the son came to visit his parents. My mum is paralysed. Dad can barely walk. I came to visit. Dad died recently. A fragment hit the house, and he was killed.

There was this nine-story building in my village. A shell hit, and a piece of the house was gone. My grandmother sat and froze. People say she was  shocked. The house is destroyed, but she still stays there. Alive, but shocked.

We didn't go out at all before. It was dangerous. Shells were flying from nowhere. Rumbling was heard everywhere. Then the lights were turned off. We had no light for almost a month. You know what that means? Especially when you have children. They decided to leave because they were too scared. There were three houses down the street from us.

We have forgotten what a railway is. When we arrived here, we finally heard the sound of locomotives and wheels! I say, thank God, at least, we were warned by these sounds.

We started to get used to them. The children went to school. I got a pension. I also had some extra money on the side. I was offered a job in a stall. I had to take waste paper.

Dima:

I dream the war is over. I was walking with my friends. I really want to get there.