Alina Salamatova from Berdyansk
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Good day! We are a family of immigrants from the town of Berdyansk, which is currently occupied. We arrived in the Khmelnytskyi region. We are immigrants for the second time, in 2014 we moved from the town of Lysychansk, the Luhansk region, to Berdyansk. Now we were again forced to move and rebuild our lives. The war began for us in the same way as for everyone. We were sleeping and heard the explosions. We lived under occupation for a month and a half, then decided to leave for the territory controlled by Ukraine. Life has changed because we left all our usual life in Berdyansk. My parents, our household, and our farm remained there. Everything remained there. Leaving the occupation was the scariest thing because we didn’t know what to expect, shells were flying, and russian tanks drove behind a column of people trying to evacuate. russians used people trying to evacuate as human shields, it was very difficult. Before the war, I worked in a bakery. We had a normal life that stayed there. The children reacted to all this very badly, it was very scary for the children. Even now, children are afraid of sirens. They don’t go far from home. They remembered the rockets overhead and the explosions very well. Vlad is 12 years old, Mykyta is 8 years old, daughters are 5 years old and 1 year old. We receive state benefits as immigrants and child support. Now the prices are very high, so it is difficult for us. I am grateful to the volunteers who provide humanitarian aid. We stock up on preservation for the winter. We need firewood for the winter, and firewood is very expensive right now. All the help we received will go to the purchase of firewood. We received one-time aid from the UN. But these funds have already run out, we spent them on preparing children for school. Housing is free, we only pay for utilities. Thanks to the good people and the village head of the community, they helped with housing. We see future Ukraine as a whole country, so that the occupied territories, even those that were occupied after 2014, return to Ukraine. I want all the so-called “republics” to return to Ukraine. I want to go to my native town Lysychansk, to see my parents who stayed in Berdyansk. I want us all to finally be able to breathe a sigh of relief and live without war. The world needs to hear about what is happening here.
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