Anastasiya Novikova left Kharkiv with her family. They also took their dog with them. Until the last days before leaving, she worked as an obstetrician-gynaecologist in a maternity hospital. They performed operations under extreme conditions. Both patients and doctors could die at any moment. “The most important thing is life,” this is what Anastasiya thinks about after the horror she experienced.

When a missile attack on our city council’s building happened, it looked like this... We did not understand what was going on. We were outside, not far from that place. When this missile strike occurred, everything shuddered. We were in a car and the car bounced. Explosions started. They were relatively far from the city centre, but it was quite obvious that it was from the Russian side. It was thundering very loudly and the whole city woke up in five minutes. Everyone realized that this was it. No one believed that this was possible, but when this situation arose, everyone understood that this was military action. I am an obstetrician-gynaecologist.

We were on duty at the maternity hospital, which came under a missile attack on 2 March. We were on a duty shift on Saturday, staying in the basement. It was on 26-27 March... Oh, not March but February. All expectant mothers were in the basement. We brought all the mattresses there. It was not even the basement, but rather the ground floor, but it was believed that there were thick walls there. Then they got tired of it tired of going up and down the stairs.

They said that they would stay for the night there, and so they all lay in one section of the building and did not go anywhere. And dropper injections were given right there. One woman was operated on at night. That is scary as you are illuminated for the whole city to see it.

When the whole city is in the dark, you try your best to work quickly and accurately. Then after the operation we took her downstairs.

When a woman goes into labour and the bombing is going on, you cannot tell her, “Wait until the bombing ends.”

We arranged the shelter space downstairs, covered the windows with mattresses, and the like. When you work under stress, you are very much mobilized, you have a cold head. You need to finish your job quickly. The ambulance came at night. It was very scary for them to be on duty and drive to patients. We asked them to run to us and hide, if a shelling starts.

They were in a state of panic. There were a lot of IDPs in Kharkiv, mainly from Luhansk region, while IDPs from Donetsk region tended to move to Kyiv region. We have one friend who moved from Lugansk region in 2014, and her relocation was not an easy matter at all. She left behind her home and work there. She and her children left with one bag. Before the start of the war, she was more or less getting on her feet in a new place, but then the same situation happened again. They told us what it was like and we understood them pretty well. Kharkiv never wanted [to support] the other side. I think that there are people in any region, well, there may be people...

But I think that now, well, I can’t say a hundred percent, but 90 percent of the population support the Ukrainian government. No one wants to be in either the so-called DPR, or in the so-called LPR (unrecognized Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics).

Everyone perfectly understands where it [the shelling] comes from. And it is a complete nonsense to say that our soldiers are running around the city and shooting at our own houses.

Pharmacies were closed and people were looking for medicines anywhere, and food too... Well, we had a problem with water in our house. We had chlorinated water from our taps. Most people took water from the potable water machines, and we went to our neighbours who had water filters.

As for food, there are some cereals, some groats. There is something, at least for the first time. We are without housing at the moment. Well, we have where to live temporarily, but every day you think whether you will have it tomorrow. This is life. This is your human life, which you have been arranging and making more comfortable for many years. Today I saw a picture that conveys an idea that if you are an IDP, you just have a suitcase with you, but your soul remains there. Your soul and your life, your heart is back there, in your house. In your own apartment.

This is your own house. This is your home, which is also your castle. We are very thankful to our relatives who gave us shelter. We know some acquaintances who keep wandering around in Western Ukraine, changing their rented flats. The second question is the job.

You have been working for many years, trying to develop and learn something new, and you feel like you cannot live without it. But then you are deprived of everything just in the blink of an eye, and your child is left without a school.

She [Anastasiya’s daughter] attended the Youth Sports School for six years. Now she has left her team, left the gym. We took our dog with us. Leaving him was not an option that we could have in our mind. Oh, I saw some reports that people left their dogs at the station... Well, for us he is a family member. A family member whom we cannot leave. Even our child said, “We won’t go without our dog.” We were afraid to make a decision to leave. When you hide in the basement of your house, you understand that you have a chance to hide. This is your home and your castle, after all. But when you realize that you need to hit the road with your child, you don’t know who you will meet on your way: like some looters or Russian tanks.

We have a great hope ahead that we will win [the war]. That this will all end. Many of my friends say that it feels like this is a terrible dream and you are about to wake up. I don’t want to leave the country. A lot of people have left, but I want to return to my dear city, to return to my dear job. I want to return to my relatives and friends, I want to go home.

We have learned to appreciate life, because when you live an ordinary life, you don’t understand that it’s not forever. But when such situations happen, you understand that the life of your near and dear ones should be valued every day.

You try to keep yourself busy with work, go somewhere, or do homework with your child. You try to keep yourself distracted. We do not know how things will change. We don’t understand when everything will end. And now no one, in any city, can be sure about what will happen to them tomorrow. I’m sure, if it’s God’s will, our country will hold it out. I believe that we have a very strong Ukrainian nation, we have wonderful people, a large number of them, those who stood up to defend their country. And these are not Nazis, these are nationalists [in a good sense].

I mean, due to those things that they [the enemy] did to us, even those people who were indifferent or neutral in their views became nationalists, real patriots. Because you begin to really value your homeland, love your homeland a hundred million times more, value your land, your hometown and your own home.