‘If we had gone a little faster, we would have come under shellfire together with the children’

All the kids help one another. Especially the eldest one. He takes care after everyone and helps me, because my husband is at work all the time. He leaves early in the morning and comes back home late. The children are all our own kids, while formally three of them are mine and two are of my husband.

The first shell hit our apartment on 31 August 2014. Thank God, we were not at home. We were having some rest with the children in nature. We were just on our way back, approaching the building when it all started. We lay in the bushes with the children.

If we had gone a little faster, we would have just come under shellfire. Just, one kid was still small then and got a bit fussy. We had to stop and lull her to sleep in the pram. She was two and a half years old, or even a little less. And we just stopped to bottle feed her.

Then we sent the children to their grandmother, while we ourselves went home. Then we saw all this “beauty”. We are thankful to the people who helped us, who brought us the windows. Some gave us window frames, others gave us glass for the windows, and some people gave us kitchenware. Because we did not have kitchenware either. Everything in the apartment was smashed.

The most difficult thing was probably those first moments. When we didn’t have water and electricity. Then we got used to it. We even learned how to cook food on open fire and make some canned or jarred food.

Rinat Akhmetov helped us. The last time it was on 28 June 2016. The roof of our house was hit. He helped us with roofing materials, provided slate, beams, everything – and we covered the roof. There are no leaks now. We still cannot live there with the children, because there are a lot of repairs to be done. The walls got dilapidated, and the stove is broken. So far, we have been renting a house here. We live here with our children.

First of all, we’ve got many children. Secondly, we cannot afford to buy many things in the stores these days. Prices have gone up significantly. They doubled, I would say. And this help comes in very handy. The package includes sunflower seed oil, sugar, condensed milk. This is a special joy for the kids. Our children sneak into these bags first off, and take out condensed milk. We are glad to get these food items.

My worst worry and concern are that one kid has a chronic disease. At that time, we did not have any medicines or doctors. It was very difficult to get medicines, and now it is the same. When he starts having seizures, we have nothing to help the child with. This was the most terrible thing.

And it was scary at the last moment when we were under shellfire. The kids were here and there was nowhere to hide. Shells were flying around the house. Well, we survived it somehow. The children were not so much scared, while their mother was more frightened.

I hope that we will move home with the children and will finish the repairs. We are going to have a baby soon. I want him to be growing up in this apartment. This is our family nest, which we made for ourselves together with the children. I hope that we will live here. Everything is dear here, everything is ours. Our cosy home, which we love.