A month in the basement and graves near the houses, no electricity, gas, water or communication, russian carpet bombing and incessant shelling – this was Kateryna’s life in occupied Mariupol. She watched with her own eyes as the neighbourhood she lived in was destroyed house by house. The road to Zaporizhzhia seemed like an eternity – 10 days, through 27 humiliating enemy checkpoints, but they eventually managed to get out.

Kateryna recalls how in her first days in free Ukraine she was happy for simple things – hot food, coffee, electricity and people who could walk the streets in peace. When Kateryna moved to Kyiv, she got a degree in psychology and hasn’t stopped learning. She also dreams of returning to free Ukrainian Mariupol one day.