“Then we saw Ukrainian soldiers, it was the happiest moment of our lives. We haven’t seen our soldiers during the whole time we were occupied, we haven’t heard our language, we couldn’t sing our songs. We laughed, hugged, invited them on treats we had and sang.”

On the morning of February 24, 2022, my brother called and said “It has begun”!. I went out to the kitchen garden and saw that the Chernobaivka airport is on fire. I went back to the house and started packing the bag with things and documents. At the same time, I did not understand what to do next. Then friends who lived in Kherson called. We tried together to decide what to do next. Staying in a house in the country sounded like a good option. I was confused and stressed. During the day, 12 of my close friends came to my house. Panic has started in the village because there was a lack of food, it was impossible to withdraw cash and no one knew when it would all end. There was a farm in our village that started helping the local people with dairy products. The city and nearby areas were occupied in just a few hours. Long columns of combat vehicles passed through our village. Russian soldiers have been constantly visiting the houses looking for Ukrainian servicemen or their relatives. Once I went to Kherson to buy food, right in front of us a Russian combat vehicle stopped and from it Russian soldiers started to come out. They passed us and one of them stopped and pointed a machine gun at me. It was a very terrible time in my life. We were getting used to living with explosions but still hoped it would end soon. Reprisals have begun in the city. They have started with home visits and checks that the children are not studying online at the Ukrainian school. They propagated that the children should study according to the Russian program and then it became compulsory. There have also been threats that we will lose custody of our children if we resist. Many went over to the Russian side. They exposed Ukrainian military positions and helped the enemy. My mother was a nurse in one of Kherson’s hospitals. The way to work was 30 km. She had to pass 2-3 Russian checkpoints every day where they checked every document and anything else they could think of. Men had to take off all their clothes and stand in a line. They had to stand there silently and show their documents and wait for a word on whether they would be allowed to pass. Some were not allowed and no one knows where they went. In the hospital where my mother worked, there was constant stress regarding cooperation with Russians. Those who resisted were blackmailed and their families threatened. Many of those who crossed over to the Russian side worked in the hospital, the police or at school.

I lived eight months in occupied territory. One night, my two-year-old son heard a noise, and then he turned to me and said in a calm voice: “- Do you hear a plane flying, it’s going to explode now.” I was scared that my two-year-old was so used to this life and accepted that war was normal. I decided to leave the city. It was difficult to do so after so many months in occupied territory, the Russian authorities had already introduced a special system of exit. To leave the city, one had to give a valid reason. At that time, the bridge between Kherson and the other side of the river was already blown up. The locals were able to help cross the river. To get permission to leave the city we needed to go to Energodar, the road there was very circuitous with thirty checkpoints where we had to stop and show all documents. We rented an apartment near the so-called “retribution house” (the place where Russian soldiers interrogated and tortured Ukrainians). Every night we heard men screaming and in the morning we saw women standing and trying to get their husbands out of there. It took us three days to complete the exit permit and those were horrible days of my life. At any minute the building where we fixed the papers could be hit by artillery and my family could die. I paid big money to get all the papers done and then we left. At each checkpoint we were frisked, our phones searched and all our bags as well. Men had to take off all their clothes and then the Russians looked for any signs of loyalty to Ukraine, such as tattoos with Ukrainian symbolism. We were a column of twenty cars, only ten were allowed to go. What happened to the remaining ten I do not know. Then we came to the so-called gray zone, in this zone the fighting is going on and it is between the Russian and Ukrainian control. This zone is constantly under fire and almost completely mined. Our column was moving very slowly but one car still got lost and came under artillery fire but luckily the people in the car made it in any case.

Then we saw Ukrainian soldiers, it was the happiest moment of our lives. We have not seen our military during the entire time we were occupied, we have not heard our language, we could not sing our songs. We laughed, hugged, offered them treats we had and sang. We had come out and made it. It was the first time since the war began that I could feel relief. We arrived in Zaporizhja and stayed at a volunteer center, the next day we arrived in Vinnitsa where my brother lives. We stayed two days with him and enjoyed Ukrainian food, we haven’t seen Ukrainian food since the war started. It was a blessing, especially for the children. However, the war continued even there because we have constantly heard explosions. I decided to go on with the children, at that time my close friend was already in Sweden and I decided to go there. My journey started in Poland, then Germany and from there by ferry to Stockholm. A month after I came to Sweden, Ukrainian military liberated Kherson. It was very happy news, however, shelling of the city has started again on November 20, 2022. In Kherson, my mother is still working in healthcare, she did not want to go with me and the children. When a house next to hers was destroyed by an explosion, she finally agreed to come to us in Sweden.

Right now Kherson and the neighboring region are under heavy shelling, people are dying in their own homes and in the middle of the street. That’s what the Russians do; destroying everything they could not keep. We very much want to get our lives back, to return to a peaceful country, where we were born, raised and lived happily until the war started. Our lives were changed forever but we hope that we will be happy even after the ordeals the war put us through.