Oksana and her children were hiding in the basement of a high-rise building in Mariupol when the city was already being sucked into the maelstrom of bombing. They stayed there for days, hardly ever going outside, listening to the distant roar of explosions as they slowly approached. One day, when the roar came close, they suddenly heard a piercing whistle and then an explosion. The house shook, and the basement was filled with dust and debris. The bomb had hit the building directly, and they were all shell-shocked. Oksana told her story as part of the Heart of Azovstal project, which supports the military who defended Mariupol from the Russian invasion in 2022.