Nina is the mother of a Mariupol defender who is now in captivity.  Her son was taken prisoner on 12 April 2022.  She has been waiting for his return for four years. When the war began, her son urged the family: "Leave!  Donbas will become another Mariupol." Nina and her daughter listened and left Myrnohrad, which was soon destroyed. They settled in Ternopil and rent an apartment.

Nina is raising a grandson with a disability and a granddaughter who lost her parents. Her son-in-law was also a soldier.  He survived captivity and returned home. But during his rehabilitation, tragedy struck — he was hit and killed by a truck. "My son is in captivity, my son-in-law is gone.  But I must hold on," Nina says. 

Nina joined a retreat run by “The Heart of Azovstal” in the Carpathians. There, for the first time in a long while, she felt relief — she breathed the mountain air, walked the trails, painted, made candles. "It was very good, very comfortable.  I don’t even have words to express my gratitude," she says. For Nina, these days were a return to life: "They filled me with the strength to keep waiting."