Kornienko Lyudmila, 57 years old:
When we left the basement, the picture was completely unappealing: the entire fence was destroyed, 50 or 70 meters of the fence, the windows were blown out, the doors on the veranda. I can't even describe.
A humanitarian organization helped us to restore the roof, and the fence ... The hostilities were not over yet, but investing some money now was a lot, not 2-3 meters. Mines fell in the yard. We got two hits, further down the street another one. The neighbors’ place was destroyed.
Well, thank God that they are at least alive. Only this pleases, soothes the nerves. It's very hard to go through all this.
Our basement may not be heavily fortified, but when there was shelling, it saved our lives. We ran, hid, even had to spend the night there. They brought here both blankets and pillows, and were together with neighbors. Then we all grouped together, all gathered.
Granddaughter Katya, 14 years old:
I walked and was on the way home, the shelling began abruptly. I was riding and it felt like everything was flying over me. When I came running, I was so scared, I was just in such shock, in a panic, and we quickly ran into the basement. We spent 20-30 minutes here.
Kornienko Lyudmila:
Already two or three years have passed since then. We have conservation in our basement. We hope that it will serve us only for storing vegetables and preserving them, we will no longer need it to hide.
We had a very large population, three thousand or more than three. Now it remains, well, this is with the fact that people have returned, probably somewhere up to one and a half thousand inhabitants. We are close to Donetsk; our life was in full swing. There were fields and farms. They are no longer there, everything has fallen into decay. We have no work left, except for a kindergarten and a school. There, you know, only a few can get a job.
The young people able to work left the village. There are pensioners left, or those who have no opportunity to go somewhere, or leave their home. We survive only thanks to humanitarian organizations and assistance from Rinat Akhmetov. The “Here to Help” Foundation - we thank him very much. This, of course, is irreplaceable help. Other organizations also helped us to fix the house.
Despite this situation, we keep the farm, plant gardens, shrubs, pick berries, and preserve them. This is probably a bad habit to get used to when you hear explosions. But when they are far away, we no longer pay attention to them. Life goes on.
More people are inclined to believe that life will improve, that some investors will return to us. We believe that our land is fertile, there will still be work. We do not despair. I don’t want to despair. I think that everything will return with us
I had two daughters, the eldest died. Here is the granddaughter. The eldest daughter suddenly fell ill and did not go to the hospital for several months. And when we went - it was too late, kidneys. They couldn't do anything. We had no funds for treatment, there was the war.
It is impossible, of course, to accept. She seemed young, healthy. I always thought that I would have support and help in my old age. She did not go anywhere to live separately. We lived together. We helped each other, raised my granddaughter. Now she remained completely in my care. My concern, my joy, helper.
Katya is affectionate, kind, very cheerful. She has such a beautiful laugh. Now she doesn't laugh much, but she had a very lively laugh. Looking at her, everything seemed to be illuminated by light around her.
She tells me: “Grandma, do not worry, everything will be fine, everything will be. Well, what are you thinking? " And it seems to me that I must save her life, save her. Save somehow, hide.
Katya:
It’s just now such an age when I don’t like something, I’m complex. My grandmother supports me, says that everything is fine, everything will pass, everything will be fine. If I come home from school upset, she starts asking me what happened, how, why. Tries to suggest something, to help.
There are people who changed during the war and became cruel towards other people. You want to walk calmly, you are not afraid of anything, but you go - and who knows what will happen in a minute, in two? Suddenly, the shelling can begin now, and you don't know at all whether you will survive after this or not. Every minute is dangerous. Sometimes you just want to forget about everything and go for a walk in peace.
And about studying, I'm such a child who grasps everything on the fly. I can understand everything, then recite it. It took me at most three hours to study. Home lessons take me an hour and a half. I will finish school - and I have several options where to go to study. I want to study to be an economist or a journalist. I haven’t told anyone about this yet, it’s just an assumption. I'm not sure yet. Maybe I'll also go to a medical department. But this is still being discussed, everything is being considered. In general, there are three professions that I would like to go to.
I dream that the war would end. I want to study well so that everything would be good in life. It seems to me that everyone dreams about it. So that everything would be good in the life of relatives, loved ones, all people who are dear to you.
