‘It is scary to live on the front line’

Anzhela Tuyakhova, 26 years old:

Childhood should be calm and peaceful, when everything what a child needs is available. So that I could go to the hospital with him freely, so that good healthcare service could be available, as well as good and affordable education. While in reality, we no longer have anything here in the village. There is not any development for my child.

There used to be many more kids here in the past, while now the kindergartens are empty. We had a big population in the village. Everyone has left because it is scary to live on the front line. You never know what can happen to you, where it can get you.

At the beginning, people tried to be very cautious and cared more about themselves. During the explosions, they hid in the cellars and had some fear, while now explosions become commonplace. They are taken for granted now. Well, there is a shellfire and that’s it. I think that this is really scary because the self-preservation instinct in people does not work. And then, when you need to run somewhere and hide, most of people remain on the street, outside, and you never know what can happen.

In February 2015, our street was also hit by shelling. A shell landed in the neighbouring yard and exploded. Our house’s cladding was damaged and windows were blown out. My dad was inside the house right at that moment. The windows were blown out and the house was shaken. And about a week later my dad died. Heart. Although my father never had any heart problems.

We waited for an ambulance quite long. The ambulance was coming from Mariupol. There was no mobile connection to make a call. It took us a while to find the telephone connection and then to reach them by the phone…

My dad never spoke about his worries and concerns, but I understood what huge stress he had to live through. He stayed in the house and said, ‘I am sitting and waiting when the house will collapse upon me’.

Zariya Tuyakhova, 64 years old:

There is probably nothing special here, but we still long for this place. We moved away, but we long for home, we have ties to all this. It is all ours.

Everything has come to nothing, basically. All our efforts and all our work. And the main thing is that I lost my husband. He got an extensive infarction. He could not stand it all. Moreover, he was a Chornobyl disaster clean-up veteran.

He was a good family man. He never shouted or quarrelled. We always had a calm family environment. He was a good husband. If he were alive now, it would be easier for us.

He did so much work and took so many efforts. He did everything himself. And then, it was all destroyed. I think it broke him. He probably knew it that he would not be able to restore this all.

When a shell landed here at our neighbours’ place, all the fragments flew towards my house. The windows were smashed; the windows were literally blown off. The roof was in fragments all over. I will hardly be able to restore and repair it all in the nearest years. I do not know how we are going to live on. If only there was peace. I wish it would all be over soon.

We can hear all the shellfire at night. We ask God that the shelling does not hit our houses, as we don’t want to get the key of the street. Well, otherwise we will survive somehow if everything stays calm.

Anzhela Tuyakhova:

It is scary, of course. My son is still small and he doesn’t understand it. He wants to go out there. There was shellfire just when he wanted to go out. How can I let him go out? He begins to cry.

We cannot go outside to play with the kid. Say, it is not possible to go to the river, because there have been numerous tragic cases. The fields and the forests are mined, and those people who did not know it were blown up. Cattles, livestock too.

I still remember when I was little, we always received gifts from the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation to our school. That is, it is not only because of the war. He helped us earlier too, during peacetime.

Zariya Tuyakhova.

Support is always important. When you get support, you feel you are needed to somebody, perhaps. You feel you are not written off, not forgotten.

Anzhela Tuyakhova:

The goal is to raise my child, to get him a solid ground because he is our long-awaited child. We wanted him very much and waited for him. I want to give him as much as I can, everything that is in my power. Let’s hope that it all will be over soon because everyone is tired of living in a situation of uncertainty.

I wish the soonest end of this war to all people. I wish us peaceful time, so that we could live as before. So that we could go and visit each other not being afraid that a mine could explode near me somewhere along the way when I am with my child. It is very scary indeed, if you think of it, if you imagine it, how it is.

Zariya Tuyakhova.

We would like to have peace. This is the main thing. And we will keep living somehow.