"At first, a few people came out to protest, and a couple of days later, about 5,000 of us were already on the streets"

Halyna Beliaieva, a teacher from Melitopol, was one of the first to participate in a street rally against the russian occupiers. In just a few days, these Freedom Actions turned into a resistance of thousands of civilians. Each time, the occupation authorities resorted to new, more severe methods to suppress the resistance of Ukrainians. Abductions, interrogations, torture. Even when the resistance went underground, thousands of Melitopol residents continued to fight.

Halyna talks about how the protests were born and how sometimes the word still won out over weapons.