“How will I tell my son why he was born in the basement?”

On 9 March 2022, an expectant mother, Anastasia, together with her husband, her younger brother, and her parents, was in the maternity hospital on Myru Avenue in Mariupol. When a Russian plane dropped an aerial bomb, Nastya [short for Anastasia] was in the basement, while her parents went outside to cook some food.

“I railed at them. I asked them to go outside in turns. Whom will we be left with if they both die? My mother had just cooked some compote, and I just started to drink it, when I heard an explosion. A loud sound, smoke, screams, and moaning. All the people were covered in blood. I realized that my family was outside at that moment and that they were gone.”