“Our street was destroyed. It was as if the houses had chickenpox.”

Hello everyone! My name is Katya. I live in Toretsk. A lot has happened over the past five years.

In 2014, a war broke out in my town. We heard constant shooting sounds. And we — my parents and I — spent almost every night in the basement.

In the summer, I went to my first camp. It was so great there. On the last day of my camp stay, my grandmother called and said that three shells had hit their house. One hit the garage, the second landed in the garden, and the third — in a large pile of land. If not for her, we would have knocked out the front wall of the house.

When I arrived home, my mother forbade me to go to my grandmother for a couple of weeks. I did, though, after a while. Our street was broken, earth, some scraps, glass, trees were everywhere. All the houses seemed to have chickenpox — they were covered in spots. Almost all houses had no windows and doors. Our town was even shown on TV.

Even now, when I see this building totally black and painted with graffiti, I am scared. Now only teens climb there. And how are they not afraid?

My sister was born the same year. In the last week before giving birth the baby turned over, and my mother had to go to Donetsk. When she was born,  the shooting began even more severe just the next week. So we moved to live in Berdiansk for a month. This was our rough summer of 2014.

Truth be told, I don’t remember what happened in 2015-2018. I remember they kept shooting. Nothing much else. This year, thankfully, the shots are very rare.

Without doubt, many friends and relatives left and do not want to return.