When russian troops began bombing Mariupol, Lesia Tarasenko waited for news from her relatives every day. Her cousins and sister were living in the city. “We were messaging each other, and I knew what kind of hell was unfolding there,” she says. Only on March 18 did Lesia’s relatives manage to leave the city. Eighteen people in two cars. “Only when they stopped in the Kirovohrad region were we able to breathe out,” Ms Tarasenko says. 

She vividly remembers the first days of the war in her hometown of Lysianka, where she works as the head of the Romashka kindergarten. At that time, Lesia’s children were living in Kyiv, near Bucha and Irpin. “The scariest thing was worrying about them,” she says. “Only when they came to me did it become calmer.” Many of the kindergarten children have parents who are fighting. Some have lost their fathers in this war. For Ms Tarasenko, this is especially painful. She tries to ensure that in the kindergarten these little ones feel calm and surrounded by family warmth.