“My war has been going on for 8 years…”

A sense of deja-vu does not leave me. The first time we were in Sweden was in 2014 after the war started in eastern Ukraine, namely in Donetsk. Packed our lives into two suitcases, left our apartments, jobs and school. Then we only lived in Sweden for 2 months before we went back to Ukraine again but not to Donetsk as that city no longer existed. And still not found. Now there is the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic instead. We settled in Zaporizha instead, where we started our business, which developed positively.
All the horrors we experienced in 2014 returned on February 24, 2022. We woke up to the sound of military planes flying over us, to calls from friends in Kyiv… War…
War! How is that possible!
From day one, we joined a voluntary movement and did everything we could. At home we had a restaurant so we cooked for our soldiers.
In the beginning, we did not plan to leave our home. The situation was difficult but under control. Everything changed after the Russians took the city of Energodar, where Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is located. The threat of blowing it up scared us a lot. We decided to save our son. The solution to this problem happened to come at the right time. In the evening of March 7, my husband said that the next day we are going… And without telling anyone (mother, father, son and wife) we went. First to Khmelnytskyi, then to Warsawa.
We immediately decided to go to Sweden. Here lives the plastic sister of my children who is very worried about us and is waiting for us. She helped us get to Sundsvall and still helps us.
I thank God and fate that my son has not experienced the horrors of the occupation, the bombings, the destruction. However, the child has lost his childhood, contact with his father, older brother and friends…
Such children there are an infinite number of…
It breaks my heart.
We have ended up in a wonderful town, Härnösand, where my child has started to enjoy every new day, new friends and new opportunities. I am endlessly grateful to Sweden for all the support, for the faith in us and all the help. But no one can help my heart which is stressed and worried about my eldest son, my husband and my parents, my friends…