Ms. Zoya dreamed of the great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, who said: “You are wrong not to believe — there will be war.” Two days later, that nightmare became real.

Zoya Davydenko is a teacher and a poet from Horenka. In February 2022, her 13-year-old daughter too had a sense that something bad was coming. She talked about her anxious dreams — about helicopters and tanks, and she was afraid to fall asleep alone. Zoya did not attach much importance to it until she herself saw a young Shevchenko in a dream, who spoke of the beginning of the invasion.

On February 24, explosions could already be heard in the morning. The family hid in the basement of colleagues in Moshchun — without light or gas, to the sounds of battles for Hostomel. In March, their house was partially burned down. Only the concrete slab saved the building’s foundation.

Before the war, Zoya had created the ensemble “Zahrava”. After returning, they found the surviving stage skirts — the only thing that remained undamaged. “This means that we have to keep singing,” she says.