In Mariupol, Oleksiy survived with his sister and her family. They cooked over a fire. Under fire, they fetched water from wells. They stayed in the 17th microdistrict until March 11.

"On March 11, at 4 am, there was an air strike near our house. The house was shaking. It was very scary. We decided to go to the city centre.

russian artillery shelling lasted 18 hours a day. The market was destroyed. There was looting. People took even what they didn't need. We didn't even hear the air strike on the Drama Theatre because the shelling didn't stop. I saw with my own eyes the terrible air strikes on Azovstal," said Oleksiy, a resident of Mariupol.