"I remember that war, too. But I've never seen a war like this"

My mother got married in Hranitne and then gave birth to me. We lived with her mother-in-law's house. Grandfather and grandmother were still alive. Father went to war and died there. Mother has two daughters. The youngest was born in 1938, and my sister was born in 1936. I didn't go to school because I didn't have anything to wear. I did not even have footwear. 

When I started living in this house, there were two rooms – a hall and a room with a stove. I went to work on a construction site and started building a house.

 The war broke out in 2014. In 2015 or 2016, I don't remember the exact months, the attacks were constant. We stayed there. I stayed with my son when the attacks were initiated. There was nowhere to go.

Once they started shooting hard. My son said, "Let's run." We reached the turn. "No," I said. "We'd better go to our sister-in-law's place." That is what we did. They started shooting hard. My daughter-in-law was feeding the chickens. She came and said, "I heard a crashing noise somewhere." Vaska said, "Mother, let's go and see."

We came and saw that our house had no windows or doors. Five windows were completely broken, the roof had a hole. If I were here, I would get hit.

So I referred to the village council for help. In the end, they gave me some slate. But it was not even enough to cover one side. We covered the hole with plastic cover and put the the slate. We had three meters of plastic cover for five windows. Can you imagine this? How can I cover windows with three meters of this cover? Of course, I cannot do it. Strangers gave me plastic cover , and we closed the windows. 

When they put up plastic windows, I came back to live here. Before that, I lived with her sister for several years. But I couldn't live there. There was nothing to see there — only beams. I don't know how she lived there all her life. You know the saying "East or west, home is best." Here I did what I wanted, I had my own rules.

It is dreadful. You are afraid every day. We didn't sleep or eat. When something crashed, the windows shook, and doors raved.

Now the the shooting sounds are far away. When they shoot, I go into the pantry and wait. Sometimes I can't sleep at night when they start shooting.

 What is there left to do? Where should I go? To whom? There are no neighbors left here. Some soldiers live here.  If you go further, you will only see broken houses. All people have left. There's only one family on the other side of the road. 

 I remember that war, too. But I've never seen a war like this. When that war broke out, my uncle carried on beams on Antaram. I used to live there. I didn't see any Germans there. I didn't see anyone there. And you can't tell here where all the shooting attacks are coming from. This is not a war. It's a manslaughter.

Many soldiers were killed. There are lots of empty houses here. When they started shooting, eveyone left.  Here, there is a hole in the gate. It was a shot from a machine gun. I had a hole behind my house, and there was some metalware there. We came, looked, took pictures. They told me, "Don't touch It, we will deal with it."

 The house corners began to fall. The  house is pitted at the back. I don't know what it was that the house is all covered in holes. Isn't it obvious that it was under fire? It is to me. But who will I tell this, who will I go to? I don't go anywhere and I don't say anything to anyone. I did, but then I stopped. The only assistance I received was from Rinat Akhmetov.

I have a son, who helps me. He has already retired. He worked in a slaughterhouse. He is 61 years old. My grandson is at home, he doesn't have a job. My granddaughter works in a cafe.

I wish there was no more war here. That's what I want. I want peace of mind. I wish that the war would end. That is all.