Julia (38), Viktoria (15)

April 8, 2022, Zilina. Day 43 of the war.

She didn't want me to take a picture of her face. She still doesn't feel safe even after two days staying in our peaceful country. The memories of what they experienced and what they saw are still fresh. They fled, hoping that nothing that happened around would happen to them. Their house burned down. They saw it during the evacuation. They saw soldiers shooting at everything that moved. They also aimed their guns at them during the evacuation. What is going on in people's minds at such a moment?

“We only heard distant explosions at the beginning, but somehow we were not too scared. The situation began to worsen gradually, we saw traces of rockets in the sky. As we didn't have a basement, we decided to go to another house to survive on March 8. On that day, tanks came to our town. Russian tanks and soldiers were also on our street, they were looking for people there, walking the streets with machine guns, robbing houses, stealing our bicycles. There were 8-9 soldiers on the top of each tank and they started open fire when they saw someone. They killed live stock right away. We saw all this with our own eyes, it happened 2 houses far from us." 

"When the evacuation corridors opened, the tanks suddenly came to us. There were about 1,000 of us who wanted to leave town. They aimed their weapons at us, prooving their superiority to us. We were very scared. If they shot us, nothing would happen to them, but we wouldn't be here anymore. Yet before the evacuation friends called us and told us that our house was on fire. We didn't believe it. It wasn't until March 21, during the evacuation, that we noticed that it was true, the entire ground floor had burned down. Apparently there was a shootout and they obviously hit our house." 

"We lived without electricity, without heat, light from the beginning. We were in the basement for almost 2 weeks. We went out to warm up in the house, where it was a little warmer only occasionally, when we were very cold. We have learned to recognize different types of weapons they were using and types of exploding ammunition. The whole streets were covered with patrons, there was a lot of unexploded ordnance on the ground when we were about to evacuate. There was a danger that we could step on it or that it could explode at any time. We were on the left side of the Dnieper near Kiev, it was much worse on the right side. In one part of the village there were Belarusians, they behaved more or less ok. But in the part where the Russians were, there was fear and death. The Russians entered homes, raped even small children, they shot to pieces whoever they met." 

"My grandparents did not want to leave, but at least they went to another part of the country. After all, it is more difficult for them to leave their house and start living in a foreign country. I only left because of my daughter. If we stayed home, we would probably burn in our house." 

"We left our town by evacuation bus, which took us to another place where our friends were waiting for us. They took us to Kiev. From there we took the train to the border. The train was running very fast because it was being shelled, some wagons were even hit and had to be disconnected. When we crossed the border in Uzhhorod, there was silence and peace. But even now, when the door close loudly, I automatically take my daughter's hand as if I were to drag her into the basement, the psyche is still working. We must get used to the peace and quiet now. We would like to forget, but we will continue to see all that what we have seen for the rest of our lives. March 8 will no longer be a holiday for us, it will be the day when the tanks came to us. Everything is destroyed, they also robbed our school, they took 50 laptops and other technical equipment with them." 

"We knew where we were going. We had friends in Zilina who advised us to come here. We understand that our town and the whole area were a kind of a shield of Kiev which must have been destroyed. Now these places are being liberated, but we are being told not to return yet. Many places are full of land mines and it is dangerous to stay there. We are very grateful to the Slovak nation that is helping us in this way. The air here is the same as in the Carpathians, the language is very similar, we already know a few words. Hi! Thank you! Please!" 

"It was the first two nights we slept well after coming here. My daughter had a dream that she was at home. Only when she woke up did she realize she wasn't. My daughter likes to go for walks and listen to classical music. We lived well, we had big plans for the spring, as we have a big farm at home. We were looking forward to the daffodils blooming in front of our house." 

"We must spread the truth. If not us, then who else? I don't understand what we did wrong to them, especially the little ones. Our house was a shield for Kiev, we must continue to help. We hope it will be good. Especially when we have such a good neighbor as Slovakia!"