Icons and prayers hang on every house and fence in our village. We feel calmer that way, because Vodiane is only 10 kilometers from the Donetsk Airport.
Now we don't even have mobile communications in our village, and we spend hours wandering in the fields to catch the signal. We've been out of touch with our family for weeks. We could call from the destroyed neighbour's house, but now even that signal is gone. We cannot contact neither the children nor the grandchildren.
The part of the village that is closest to the front line is closed to us. We would never cross the threshold of that place.
We can only leave the village by bus, which runs twice a week. This is the only way for us to get to Selydove or Ocheretyno. We go to Selydove for food, pensions and medicines, because we do not have any pharmacies, shops, or even a village council in Vodiane.
We spend a thousand UAH a month on medications. I didn't complain about my health before the war, but even the most resistant ones lose their nerve in three and a half years. We measure their blood pressure twice a day. We are always afraid, even before we go to bed. We are afraid that the shell would hit.
My blood pressure jumps and my heart hurts because of the war. We have a lot of friends who died because of this war. They were not even ill. And Raisa's wife was concussed during one of the attacks, and she didn't hear at all in one ear. They gave her a free hearing aid at the hospital, but it is inconvenient for her, she is afraid of losing it.