“An aerial bomb was dropped near our house. We were staying in the corridor. My mum wanted to soothe me, but I didn’t cry then. I cried only when we left the area,” recalls Melania, a resident of Mariupol. “Our classmate Tymur died. Katia and my grandmother Ira died too. Katia and I were best friends. We had been friends since birth. Neither Katia nor my grandmother are with us any more now.”

I woke up. My mum woke me up. Some hustle and bustle around. I checked my phone right off. There was some hustle in school groups, and messages just throughout Instagram, everywhere. Some of our classmates, those who still did not understand it till then, asked if we were going to have online classes. I and some others wrote, “What classes are you talking about? The war has started.” My friends and I were in a bit of a shock. We kept messaging each other; we stayed in touch and worried about each other. The first plane scared me more than the explosions because it was very low, right near us. We were sleeping, and then we suddenly woke up in the night, and we all moved to the corridor. At first, there were just some explosions, and then a plane flew by, and we realized that we had to go to our friends, to the so-called sailors’ [village]. Once, I had a case when... I was sleeping and then I woke up. I heard some explosions and could not understand whether it was a dream or not. The reality was the same, and everything mixed up in my mind. I confused the reality and my dreams because of all this.

When we came downtown, a bomb was dropped at around 12 o’clock, and that was when we probably felt the worst. I was worried about my dad, my grandfather, and those who were downstairs. We were all staying in the corridor, and my mum was trying to soothe us.

To be honest, I did not even cry when in Mariupol. After I left [the city] though, I often had tears in my eyes when I had some recollections. When in Mariupol, I took everything that was happening in quite a tranquil manner. I don’t know why. Maybe it was some sort of shock caused by all this. I could not even force myself to cry. One of my classmates, Tymur, died. He was 14 years old. He and I got along well, perhaps in the 6th or 7th grade.

I was doing my homework and then our class teacher sent us a message, “Tymur has died, his mother informed us.”

She did not specify how exactly he died, and we somehow did not dare to ask about it. He had been a cheerful and kind boy.

He always had some fun in class. Of those classmates I stayed in touch with, thank God, all of them are alive and well, everything is fine with them. Katya and I had probably been friends for some 12 years. Since birth, one might say. We had been getting along well all the time. We played together and were best friends. Later, she changed her school for mine. We studied in parallel grades, and then we started drifting apart. She got her own team of friends, and I had my circle, so we became just acquaintances, as one could say. We would meet each other, exchange hugs and walk away. I somewhat regret that I stopped hobnobbing with her. I would really like to have her back. She was lively and cheerful. There was Katya, her aunt… That is, she is my sister. They grew up together from birth. They spent a lot of time together. Katya was probably more kinetic or fidgety. While Mila is calmer. I remember how my mother was doing some refurbishment in the house, and I was visiting her then with Mila. At some point, we heard that they just calmed down, went quiet. They were both five years old then. I said, “Mum, there’s probably something wrong there. They are probably doing something bad.” So we went to the living room and found that Mila and Katya left some doodles on the walls in the freshly refurbished room. My mum did not scold them at all. She said that this would be kids’ “art corner”. So this wall remained with their drawings on it, with their palm prints, brush strokes, and paints. Katya was a more active girl. She was lively, cheerful, and more active. While Mila was a calmer, more reserved kid. Katya was more energetic. That is, of all the “horseplays” we had, Katya was behind plotting up all of them, while Mila just took part.

- Do you want to return to the city?

Of course, I do, very much. To take a walk around the Drama Theatre, to be running away from jellyfish in the Sea of Azov again, to run around Freedom Square. To go to our school, to get up to some “mischief” with friends again, to break some boards.

- How do you think the war will end?

With our victory. I hoped that it would happen before the New Year. Now I hope that there will not be one year of war, that everything will be over sometime before 24 February. They will simply take back everything that was ours. Mariupol will be taken back, and everything will end like that.