Mariia Prokopenko, her children and grandchildren barely survived the Russian shelling in Huliaipole. At the beginning of the full-scale war, the family hid in the basement of their house, which was almost on the line of fire. At that time, the woman was most worried about her granddaughter, who suffers from asthma. The girl could not stay in the damp basement. Neither could she be upstairs under fire. The family was waiting for the moment when they could slip between the shelling. They managed to do so only two weeks later.

Mariia is currently living in Dnipro. She visited her home in the frontline village of Huliaipole several times. She came under fire there. A shell damaged her house and her in-laws' house in front of her eyes. Mariia herself barely escaped.