"Dad got injured on the field. It was the mine mine"

Mother Vera Karpenko: there was only a trailer from the exploded tractor. It is all covered with rust. Who can drive it? We are waiting for the small ones to grow up. We will save it. I'll cover everything with plastic so it doesn't rust. My husband took care of the tractor, bought a pick-up truck, and he  was happy. He was 40 years old when he died. He was blown up in a field on a tractor.

On the first day he worked  normally, mowed something in the field. Then he said: "On the second day, the hay will dry up – I'll take a picker and go." He went to finish mowing the hay and didn't come back. The police arrived. They said that was  all. He was  in the hospital. And the blown-up tractor... It was

… There are no such people in the world. I lived with him like in paradise. Now it's like hell. Two kids, we need to hold on somehow.

My older Marik dances. He has already received his sixth diploma in dancing. And yesterday in Talakovka, near the school, he had a circus performance. Eric loves the tractors.

Children:

- Dad would pick us up from kindergarten. We have a Volga, we always went to the market. Dad bought us toys. He was blown up on the field. It was a mine. Now we live on our own. With my grandmother, with my mother.

Grandmother:

– When the attacks start, we hide in the basement. It is so terrible. Grandchildren are very afraid. Even when it  thunders, they shout “Grandma, it  is war." It is damp in the basement. And we are afraid, God forbid, a shell would hit the house and fill us up, and we will not be dug up, and will not be found. We are on the verge of survival. Where can we go? How to leave it all, where to go? Who is waiting for us there? And we are used to living here, working here, raising children here.

Mother:

- The most important thing for me now is to bring  them up. So that they are honest, like their dad Vitya. Workers. So that they are healthy, good people.