Evzenia (38), Artem (12), Rostislav (1)

Monday, March 14, 2022, Alzbetin Dvor. Day 18 of the war. 

You can see everything she have had to go through in the last few days in her face. No more words are needed. Adriana, who provided them with accommodation, recalls the first few days with sadness in her voice. Evzenias' older son did not say a word for a few days after arriving in Slovakia. Even after almost two weeks, he keeps his answers very short. A one-year-old toddler has been refusing to eat, he had to be held in the arms all the time, as if he needed to feel the other person's closeness, as if he felt what was happening.

"We came here because we were very scared. We slept in a bathtub for the last 2 nights before leaving Ukraine. The bathroom was the only place in the apartment without windows. It was very dangerous to stay in a room with windows. My husband stayed at home in Kiev, fortunately he is still fine. We speak together several times a day. We have a house next to the forest, and right there, about 10 km far away the fighting is going on. The children are already fine, fortunately the younger one still does not understand what is happening. The elder one probably doesn't still get what is going on, thanks to God. He's my little soccer player. I worked as a secretary in Ukraine. I speak Russian and Ukrainian, I'm just starting to learn English, I can only say a few phrases. I don't know what will happen next."

"I would like people in Russia to think and react, they too have children. Ordinary Russians are not guilty, they are completely isolated there, they see things through the fog, they are like hypnotized. They only hear lies in the media and that shapes their opinion. My friends in Russia are also fanatized. They love Putin. I do not understand, they were born in Ukraine, their family is from Ukraine, they bomb our houses and they still love Putin. It's terrible. The people of Crimea and several Ukrainians living in Russia think the same. The most important thing is so that we can return and that we have a place to return to."