"When we meet, we say, "See you in Pisky"

Oh, Pisky was first under fire on 18 July, at 7 a.m. We stayed there for another five days after that. And then we didn't even know that it was forced, so to say, the evacuation of the city center, in the direction of Donetsk. So we have lived on the outskirts of the city ever since. Near Izmailivka. We took my sister's car and got to this side to the sounds of fire. Houses literally flew up. The shelling started on Stepna Street, where we lived. The kindergarten, school and multi-storey buildings (the eighth and ninth houses).

We left for Krasnoarmiisk on 3 August. The younger son, Maksym, was born in 1983. He turned 31 on 25 December. He was here with us until 13 November 2014. So I took him to the bus. The Krasnoarmiisk-Izmailovka minibus was still running. It rode once a day. So I took him to the bus. I said, "Son, stay here." He said, "Mum, I'll go, maybe I'll try to save something."

Then he called me and said, "Mum, there are so many destroyed houses on Stepna Street. Can I let them in?" There were six women. They cooked food for him.

Water supply was cut off on the first day, July 18. There is still no gas or light in Pisky. The well is very far down the street. Well, he also buried the dead residents. He told me, "Mum, so many people have died." They were buried right in their homes. He helped dig holes in the garden.

Son died on January 7. I talked to him in the evening. And we agreed with him that at 9 a.m. he would call me. He had to go the second floor of the building, because the connection was poor. He called me and said, "Mum, I'm alive." He called me all day on 7 January. He wanted to talk. And in the morning, 8 January, I got a call, "Maksym is no longer with us." His heart just stopped beating. Cardiac arrest.

And before that, on 7 January, it was 40 days since a shell killed his friend, Seriozha Dikanov, who was going to receive humanitarian packages. He buried him. His heart just couldn't stand it. That's all.

War is an indescribable horror. I walked down the street. We agreed with people that let's stock up on water, buckets, hoses. We got the water done a year before that. We never had water pipes on Stepna Street. We spent our money to get it done. I said, "We will flood the fires. I had an idea that when they would start shooting, and something would burn somewhere, we would be able to put it out. When we were hit by Grads and mines, one shell hit, and a house was gone. We had no water to put out the fire.

We hid in basements. We found a car to leave. We went to the city of Krasnoarmiisk. The condition we were in was terrible. We have friends and distant relatives here. We called them to know if going was a good idea. We were told that the house  opposite the street was empty. So we went to check it out. There's no furniture there. The house seemed poorly adapted for use. We had two children to take care of. Denys was not even two months old. llia was five years old.

A neighbor came out. She asked who we were and what we wanted. She said, "We will work it out. Don't go there. That house is completely empty." We were lucky that people there were so caring. We are still friends with them. They help us out a lot. She found the owner of this house, which was abandoned. We have been living here ever since.

People, complete strangers came and asked if we needed anything. When they saw the children, they brought us a playpen, a blanket, and dishes. Some people brought pillows, some brought a baby blanket, some brought chairs. A neighbor gave us a TV set. I only had a bag with documents with me. Husband was wearing flip-flops, shorts and a T-shirt. The children was baby bottles and pacifiers.

We spent the money we got on coal, firewood, utility bills, and house rent. That was it. It was hard to call it a life. There were times when we had nothing to buy bread for. We tried to make something from condensed milk we received as humanitarian aid. Denys has been a bottle baby  since he was born. He didn't eat mother's milk not even a single day. We cooked porridge for Denys using water and not milk. Denys called his bottle "Mother". It did a good job though. He hugs this bottle, wipes it with a napkin. "This is my mother," he says.

Humanitarian aid was like survival kits for us. And we survived on them, because, although we were not displaced until March, we were registered as residents of the village of Pisky only on 2 March 2015, a decree was issued that we entered the ATO zone. And throughout the autumn and winter of 2014, we literally survived on these survival kits.

And when cars go to Donetsk, this feeling is indescribable and pride that such a person exists. God bless him and his family. There are millions of people who need help. He has a very good heart. He spends a huge amount of money to help other people.

We all want peace. Many of our people, as I have already said, died here in Krasnoarmiisk, in Dymytrove, in Volnovakha, in Kurakhove, in Selydove. We have bury so many people. We all want peace. We all want to go home. There was talk that Pisky would not be restored. We will restore it, though, in time. Just let us go back there so we can go back, meet whoever is left. When we meet, we say, "See you in Pisky."