"We started rushing around the city, looking for a way out. The police said the only way out was to hide in basements"

Olena encountered the full-scale invasion together with her two sons and mother on the Left Bank. I woke up because I heard explosions while asleep. "I saw a bright sky and incredible explosions!", - the resident of Mariupol recalls. 

Olena went to the integrated plant named after Illich. We opened shelters together with my colleagues. And that was the last day she saw them.

"On February 24, I was going to the Left bank, and many people were going from there", - she says. Olena's house was located by the sea. Staying there was extremely dangerous. And the family first moved to the center of the Left bank, and then to the Central district, to live with friends in the single-family residential neighborhood. 

"I went out to look at the sun. There was black smoke from one side. A plane over "Azovstal". It seemed to be a nightmare. I went outside. Shells started flying. Uncle Vova, the owner of the house, hid my son and father-in-law. He ran to hide the dog. And a shell hit. A fragment hit him in the stomach. Father took him to the hospital. There were lots of wounded there. There was hope that the wound was not mortal. But Uncle Vova died.

March 16. We tried to leave. There were killed civilians and soldiers lying. Hundreds of cars. Thousands of people. Some people tried to leave on foot. People were carrying food. Warehouses with foodstuffs have already been blown up", - told Olena.