Missile attacks on Melitopol woke Mila up early in the morning on February 24, 2022. Convoys of enemy tanks were heading for the city. Russians hoped that Melitopol and its residents would surrender under this pressure. But the locals did not retreat and put up resistance to russian soldiers till the last.

Mila experienced two occupations at once. The first one - in native Melitopol. The second one - when she was with her daughter in Mariupol in her thoughts. From the first days of russian invasion, the city lost communication, and people were deprived of information. Only when Mila's daughter managed to come to Melitopol from long-suffering Mariupol, the family began their journey to free Ukrainian territories.