Viktor Mashkin’s family barely survived in besieged Mariupol. They hid in basements and cooked in the yard over a fire. The house where they lived was left with burnt walls and ashes. At the beginning of the war, the family split up: Viktor’s father stood up to defend Mariupol, while his mother took her sons to her relatives in a safer area.
During the fierce fighting, Viktor’s father was seriously wounded, one of his legs had to be amputated, and later the defender was taken prisoner.
The family managed to escape from Mariupol to Europe. For a long time, thousands of kilometres separated the Mashkins. And even after their father’s release, they could not be together because they did not have their own home. But the apartment from the NGO “Heart of Azovstal” allowed the family to start from scratch. Viktor was able to hug his father after two years of separation.
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