“I stepped out of the corridor into the stairwell. Then my mother told me that our Zhenia was gone”

In Mariupol, Olha did everything to survive with her three children, her husband Evhenii, and her mother-in-law. Her youngest baby was just nine months old. Her husband did not want to leave. On March 10, he went to the car that was parked in the yard of a single-family house to charge their phones, and an explosion erupted. 

“Minutes felt just like an eternity. We got out of the basement. I saw my husband being put on a door, covered with a blanket. He was lying on his stomach. There was no blood. I came closer. I told him, “Zhenia, I love you. Everything will be fine!” – recalls Mariupol resident Olha Berezka.