In Mariupol, 9-year-old Mariia was going through hell together with her mother and sister. At first, they slept in the hallway. And when the shelling intensified, they moved to the basement. 

“On March 14, a shell hit our house. Mom wet rags. We breathed through them. Our ears were filled with dust. It was very scary,” Mariia recalls.

On March 16, Mariia and her relatives went to their apartment. On the way, they met men armed with machine guns. They pointed their weapons at them. The Russian military turned the muzzle of a tank towards the peaceful Mariupol residents.