The war began on Oleksii’s birthday, February 24; the boy woke up from explosions at 3 a.m. On the first day, a colleague of Oleksii was killed by shrapnel. The boy himself was wounded when he tried to charge his phone in a friend’s car to get information about green corridors. He heard an explosion overhead, ran out of the car, and felt he was wounded. So he considers March 13 his second birthday.

At first, he lived with friends in an apartment. The first days had a semi-festive atmosphere. But after all utilities were cut off, anxiety increased. They lived in an information vacuum; there was a lot of disinformation. He was in Mariupol until March 15.