Iryna Korolenko from Donetsk

Hello. The most terrible moment in our life was in the year when the first war started, it was the worst thing that happened in that year, and I was pregnant with my first child, my eldest daughter. I was afraid that I would not be able to carry the child, to give birth, but thank God I gave birth to a baby on time, gave birth to a healthy girl, thanks to the doctors. Thank you for everything that happened to us then. After After that, when we found ourselves under shelling, we left Donetsk for a town in the Kharkiv region, Merefa, and there I met a guy. We rented a house and lived together. I, my older daughter, my boyfriend, and a little later, I got pregnant with him. When I was pregnant, we broke up. The man behaved badly, disgustingly, drank constantly, there were quarrels and scandals. Maybe because of this, maybe not, maybe because I had fibroids, I gave birth to a girl before the due date, I gave birth at 26 weeks, 950 grams. I was discharged from the hospital in 2 days, and the girl remained in the baroche. It was very difficult for her to stay there for 2 months, it was very hard, the doctors said that she could count down 10 days, if everything went well, she would live on. I was afraid, these terrible moments, these 10 days… Thank God they discharged me, I’m healthy now, everything is fine. After we were discharged, I had no money, I was in debt where we rented a house in Merefa and when I received child benefits, we paid for the house. With this money, I bought the medicines that my child needed and we left to look for cheap options, found in the city of Balakliya. I rented an apartment there. We lived there for two years, maybe more, and later we found ourselves under occupation again. occupation again. We had no means of subsistence, no humanitarian aid, nothing good in this life. It was scary to go out, there were Caucasian Chechens, they were going from house to house, checking if there were men, I was very scared at that time. I thought my whole life was just flying by. A little later, I found a way to leave, and the Red Cross helped us with the evacuation, thanks to the Red Cross we were taken to the government-controlled territory of Ukraine. Ukraine and our friends in Merefa helped us. We rented a house, started living here, re-registered as IDPs in Merefa and are living here again, but it is expensive to rent. Winter is coming and we have no money. I receive only 8,000 UAH as an IDP for myself and two children. We have no more money, no help, no humanitarian organizations in Merefa. The older girl goes to school online, we have only one phone to study on, and the situation is so difficult that we don’t have enough money for anything. Sometimes, to be honest, even to replenish the account so that we can study. My younger daughter, she has started to get sick now, I don’t know why, or her immune system is weak because she was born prematurely, I’m not sure. The doctors say it’s a common SARS, but we get diagnosed every 2 weeks, and we get sick and sick and sick. I can’t get a job because of this, and not only because of this, even because I have no one to put my children with. Our kindergartens don’t work. There is a private kindergarten, but it costs money. I can’t pay for it every day, I mean, there is an opportunity to earn money to go to work or to live for something, but we don’t live from IDP to IDP, so this is the first time I’m coming here to ask for help. I don’t know how to make a video properly, and somehow I managed to tell my story in a video. I’m sorry if something is wrong. This is probably the biggest fear I have in my life, that there could be a famine. It’s very scary for me, I’m afraid that it could happen, God forbid of course, the Russians would take over Ukraine, and I really don’t want that, it’s very scary for me. I want the whole world, all people to know that Russia are very bad people, very bad people, and when I lived under occupation, no one cared whether you had children or not, they are very cruel people and it is very scary to be under occupation, very scary, I am asking for help here to take my child to the hospital. I need to take her to be examined by narrow specialists, but we need to go to Kharkiv, and we have no money for travel or for doctor’s visits. We will need at least some money, but we have no money for anything. I also have an illness, uterine fibroids, and it’s very hard for me, it needs to be removed. The war has changed my life to the extreme, I always worry that if something happens, I don’t want my children to be left alone. It is very scary for me. I want to always be with my children, I need money to get around the doctors so that I can buy something to eat, because we are not able to do that. I’m sorry for the fact that the video may not be properly filmed, but I shot it as best I could. Thank you very much