"In the basement, we never knew whether it was three in the morning or three in the afternoon"

Valentyna's husband is a former soldier, and they lived for 30 years in a military town near Antonov Airport. Therefore, the war came to them at once in the form of helicopters, planes, tanks, armoured personnel carriers, airborne assault, bombing, and street fighting. The woman, her husband and her elderly mother-in-law were hiding in the basement for 16 days until mid-March, with no water and almost no food. They managed to get out by a miracle under a terrible bombardment. Only three houses remained intact in the military town where Valentyna lived.