I am asingle mother. I have two children - a 15-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter. My parents and I lived together in a three-room apartment in Kharkiv in the North Saltivka district. This is exactly the area that the Russian army fires the most.

On March 3,2022, we were in our apartment on the 16th floor. This is the top floor of the building. The shelling began. All five of us hid in the corridor. A shell hit our kitchen, we heard the walls falling. We fell down. We got out and ran down the stairs.

Russian soldiers started shooting at us on the street - we didn't know at the time that you can't go outside when they are under fire. We ran to the nearby basement. I lost my son on the way. He hid in a nearby house. That house started to burn, rescuers arrived and started to put out the fire. I found my son there.

We spent the night at our friends' house and left Kharkiv a day later. We had only documents and clothes on us. Now we are near the city of Dnipro, renting a house. We need to start a new life. Before the war, I worked as a realtor. I never thought that I would have to ask people for help.

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