Iryna Katsimon from Novi Petrivtsi
Good day! My name is Iryna. We live in the village of Novi Petrivtsi with my family. It is located 20 km from Bucha and Hostomel. When the war started, we woke up at 5 am from the explosions. My husband called me in the morning, he works at a local bakery and that morning he brought bread to Brovary. He informed me that the war had begun and that Brovary had come under fire. The cars returned without reaching the place of arrival. It was shock, rejection, and not understanding what was happening. Our children are small – 3, 6, and 9 years old – and we did not know how to explain it to them. We did not know what would happen next. The worst was when Russian military planes began flying over our homes. They flew very low. At first, we thought it was Ukrainian planes, but they were planes of the Russian Federation. The first night in the cellar with the children … we didn’t know how to explain everything to them. The first missile flights began. We stayed put for a long time, hoping that the situation would improve quickly, but it did not happen. Missiles began destroying houses near us. We left for the town of Vyshneve, but we didn’t stay there long, because soon the missile flights began there too. We took the children and went to the west of Ukraine. When the situation got better, we decided to return home. It is very difficult now. There is no work. It is difficult for us to feed 3 children, we don’t have enough money even for basic needs. We are at home now, but the war has affected us greatly. We are now taking our eldest daughter to a psychologist. We try to live somehow. We believe in Ukraine, we believe in our armed forces, and we hope for the best. If the sponsors help us, we will be very grateful.