Svetlana (60), daughter and 3 grandchildren

Monday, March 7, 2022, Inovec

My granddaughter is 4 years old and she already understands what fear and pain are.

"In Vinnytsia, where we come from, air raid sirens went off often. The children learned to be prepared, important things like underwear, water and food were packed in backpacks. They jumped out of bed, took their backpacks, and ran into the cellar at the sound of each siren. They began to feel sick and often cried. We decided to save them and leave so that they would not have a psychological trauma. We'd better stay abroad, but in peace and mentally healthy. And when the war is over, we'll return home."

"My son and son-in-law stayed there. They are required to stay at home. Their strength, knowledge and determination must help our country. They work as volunteers. We are in contact with them. In the event of an alarm, they run to help others hide, they are preparing sandbags,... They are our defenders. We heard terrible news yesterday. 200 rockets hit our city and destroyed the entire suburbs and the airport. There must have been many dead. Many friends call us mainly from Kharkov, they say that the city is destroyed. Many cars full of children and women leave from there. There is usually a man behind the wheel who drives them to the border and then returns home to help his homeland. They all return and work as volunteers or soldiers. Grandma is here with us, she wants to go home, help her grandchildren. One of the granddaughters refused to leave because of her 3 small children. We called her to join us here, everything was ready, but she doesn't want to leave home."

"I can't even describe the words of gratitude that I feel for how we were received here. We walked across the border. As soon as we crossed them, we were surrounded by people who offered us their help. They took our hands and led us home. We did not expect such acceptance and respect, we even felt uncomfortable and confused in the first hours. We didn't have time to take many things due to the rush. Here the volunteers gave us everything we needed. May God bless these people and give them health for helping the people and Ukraine."

"I want to ask Russian mothers to take their sons home. They have to stand up to it all, beg, shout out loud for their children to return home in good health, so they could be the pride of their country. Our land should not be sown with the bodies of their sons, who will not be buried and the mothers will not be able to come to their grave. Our sons and your sons must not die again! I was used to going to the grave of my ancestors. Now I do not know where we will be buried as we are scattered around the world. I don't know if my children will be able to go to my grave. I pray that the war will end as soon as possible, that the sky will close, and that our allies will help us. God have mercy on us and on our children! We want it to end! We just want peace!"

"My soul screams in pain, I don't understand why it happened. Family ties between Ukrainians and Russians were very strong. We have a large part of the family in Russia. I spent my childhood in the Soviet Union, schools, everything was in Russian. We had a common language. But now I don't want to speak Russian, it hurts to listen to that language! I just want to speak in my native language. Our language will flourish, it will live, it will be here forever and no one will defeat us! We will be happy, we will return home and we will fix everything. Our men are defending our country. They told us to take the children away in order to survive and to have a place to return to. Children understand that we have an enemy - Russia! It's awful that kids already have enemies! My granddaughter is 4 years old and she already understands what fear and pain are."