Stories that you confided to us
The big Chubuk family lives near the front line. They had to patch the roof and change the windows more than once. Tetiana has five children — the youngest is not even six months old. The sandbox is the safest place in the yard. The walls of buildings can protect the children from stray bullets, but not from shells. The house is ready in case any emergency evacuation may occur. Complete sets of children's clothing are set in the closet. The family had to run away from danger more than once. They moved to Marinka from near Yenakiieve. But shelling still continues here as well.
Me, my husband and five children moved to Marinka. We thought it would go back to the way it was before. But when we arrived, shelling started here.
We lived in Kirovske, Donetsk Oblast, in the area of Yenakiieve. I took care of the children, took them to kindergarten, to school, helped them with homework. We had a garden next to our house. I had to go to Marinka because the job situation was bad. My grandmother is also here. I had to help her.
So, me, my husband and five children moved to Marinka. We thought it would go back to the way it was before. But when we arrived, shelling started here.
The first attack happened on 11 July. One day, when we had a day off, shell started to fall. It was broad daylight. We just arrived. The attacks were severe. We could hear the shooting sounds clearly. We often saw military machinery in the streets. The children were afraid to go to school.
Every time they heard the shooting, they gathered up in pairs with the teacher in the hallway of the school and went to the school basement. Parents call the teacher or she does, and they come to take the parents. Only parents could take the children. Neither neighbors nor friends were allowed to do it. It had to be only a child's parent.
And then sometimes, even when parents came to take the child, they had to wait it out in the basement until the attacks stopped.
There were times when I had to wake up the children in the middle of the night when shooting began. I could not sleep. I just listened to the sounds, when shells would start to fall. I had to be ready to pick them up quickly and collect them.
We kept all the documents in one place. We had things in one closet so as to make it easier to pack.
Well, on the third day of the attacks, my grandmother told us to go Sumy Oblast.
I'm a focused person. I've never had a situation where I was at a loss. But I was more afraid for the little ones than for myself.
I used to think they didn't pay much attention to it. They had heard the shooting before. They were told to wait it out. They could watch TV. Then they began to understand why they were being moved from room to room all the time.
But then we went to visit my grandmother in Sumy Oblast a month and a half ago. We stayed there for two weeks. It seems to be a short period of time, but when we returned here, we realized that it would last for a long time. When we arrived, they started shooting hard on the second day. My children hid under a blanket on the couch. I had never noticed anything like this before.
They were like me. They were careful and attentive. They had to be prepared for whatever might happen — either go out or go to another room. They still hide, "Mum, mum, mum." They would call me, "Mother, come here, please. We are afraid." I told them that everything was normal, that it was just a usual attack.
These 14 days showed that children are affected. They became nervous. We see a psychologist. A psychologist comes here, to the church, every Thursday. She works for free. We go to see her.
The house is in great need of repairs. We need to replace the roof. The corridor also needs repairing. It was damaged during the winter, because snow got into the corridor. Snow just covered the area between the door and the corridor. We had the same weather both outside and in the corridor.
What can we do? We are a large family. We have to spend almost UAH 6,000 on food. Not to mention shoes and clothes for the children. Toys are expensive. Social benefits (7,000 UAH) are not enough. Husband brings around 2000 UAH. It's still not enough, because we need to pay for electricity and gas.
If it wasn't for Rinat Akhmetov's help, we probably wouldn't have drunk tea or made pies. We receive butter, sugar, flour. It means a lot. Children also like pates we get from humanitarian packages.
Thank you so much for not forgetting us. Of course, if it wasn't for the war, maybe we wouldn't need it so much. I don't know what we would have done if it wasn't for this humanitarian aid.
I hope everything will be fine. They will stop shooting and finally open our kindergarten. Maybe one day peace would come, and we would get jobs. If only my husband didn't have to go and look for work far away from us.
When quoting a story, a reference to the source – the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation – is mandatory, as follows:
The Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation https://civilvoicesmuseum.org/
