Volodymyr clearly remembers the events that took place in Bakhmut in 2014 — people in unfamiliar uniforms who tried to occupy the city, constant sounds of explosions, and shelling of the military base. That experience and the hope that the city would withstand again in 2022 kept him going until the very end. Only concern for the fate of his grandson, who was just 3 years old, prompted him to evacuate. Now Volodymyr lives in Kyiv, although he does not place undue hopes on the capital, and considers his own plans — to return to his native Bakhmut — currently unattainable.