‘Young guys, in their 40s, were killed instantly...’

I am 75 years old already. At first, there was no club (community centre), no store, just nothing here. We used to go to a club in another place to dance. Houses were so old then. Then the village started to build up; a club was built; some stores were built too. Back then, when I started to work in 1965, there was a hospital. They built a hospital, made an asphalt road. The village was reborn. My husband and I bought this old house. We had some livestock.

When the shelling started, power lines were damaged. The farm did not have any electricity, and no one would go to fix it… Shells were going over our kitchen garden, over the house. It was unbearable. We did not know what was going on; the earth was shaking! At one neighbour’s place, half of the roof slates were blown off; while over there, only some slates were touched by shelling. Shells were hitting close by.

Two guys were killed. The first one drove his car over a shell or who knows what... a tripwire or something and he was killed. The second one was walking across his yard and tripped wires. Young guys, in their 40s, were killed instantly.

So many children were killed, maimed... It is unbearable to look at them. An arm was torn apart, or a leg, some lost their eyesight. How can you live through such wartime?

In the evening, if there is some explosion, I grab my Corvalol [a tranquillizer drug], my phone and rush out. I shake like a person with a nervous disorder. What shall we do further? How to live further?

I am already old. Halfway out. But my grandson was injured. They had bought a TV set, a plasma one or something, a huge one, a computer, a computer desk, a sofa, an armchair on credit. Then, two or three shells hit the house and everything in the house was damaged. Nothing was left intact, just nothing. The furniture was damaged; the crockery was broken; everything was broken.

They give us humanitarian aid, some sugar, oil and flour. If it is not enough, I can buy some more. There are some cereals. Big thanks, from all pensioners.

And the biggest wish is for the shelling to end. If only this war could be stopped!