"I was walking with a white flag, and everywhere around were the consequences of the battle. It took me a week to get home"

The war caught Alona Verlan at work. The woman worked in a poultry house in Makariv, Kyiv region, 22 kilometers from her home in the village of Ozerschyna. Her children and three-year-old granddaughter were waiting for her there. Alyona and several of her fellow villagers decided to return on foot. Even though the russians were already following that path. Shelling continued, battles raged. Alona will never forget that journey: broken tanks, charred corpses, scorched earth. The woman held a white flag in her hands. She kept wondering: is her family alive and how far have the russian invaders gone?

That's how the group got to Korolivka. The Ukrainian military did not let them go further: it was too dangerous. There, Alona received news about her family. From a tanker, whom the Verlan family sheltered and hid from the russians. Only a few days later, Alona finally got home.