‘We don’t want to go anywhere. We love our town’

We could not imagine this in the worst nightmare. After all, everything used to be fine, it used to be a peaceful time.

We don’t want to go anywhere. We want to live on where we live. This is our home, our vegetable garden. My children used to go to school here and my grandchildren go to school here now. Everything is familiar and dear to us here. We love our town.

It is all very hard mentally. In 2015, from late January till March, those two months were sleepless for us. It was such a hell here! Our house is built from clay-and-straw bricks and then lined around with slag block. The walls of the house were shaking. It is very scary when something is flying and whistling above your head. You would sit and think: is it coming here or has it flown by? This is very scary. It is scary emotionally. It is very scary for children. We have seen a bit of life, but they are still small.

Last year, two shells landed in the vegetable garden. Two years ago, we spent four months without electricity and without water supply. We were going to the water well for water and stocked up on batteries. We were listening to a portable radio, and made some sort of night lights using LED lamps. It was enough for three days, so that it could be more or less light in the room.

This sounds like “flop”! But when you hear it like “bang”, that is scary then. We can tell it by the sound, we hear the sound and know what it is. On this third year, we have learned how to tell the difference.

All the windows are broken. You can see where the bullet passed. It is good that there was some kind of a pouffe (a padded stool) there and it stopped the bullet. And another bullet came through and flew out as far as near the window. It is not safe to sit there. It is hard. We have to run fast. We fall to the ground when in the vegetable garden. Once we hear that the shelling starts, we lie down on the ground.

We left the place, but then returned. Nobody is waiting for us there. People are different. Some are sympathetic, and others are like ‘there goes the neighbourhood!’ [do not like newcomers]. Therefore, it is better to be at home. One way or another, but at home.