Olena Skalytska from Balakliya
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Good afternoon, my name is Olena. I lived with my family, my husband and two children, who were 6 and 8 years old at the beginning of the war, in the city of Balakliya, Kharkiv region. For us, as for many people, the war began on February 24 with the morning explosions, and then, probably, like everyone else, there was fear, misunderstanding of the situation, what would happen next, what to do… Total confusion.
We decided to go to our parents in the village, because we thought that the village was a safer place, it was small and few people would need it. But it didn’t happen that way, because during the first week, a very large number of military vehicles arrived there. Massive shelling and buying food from stores began, because there are only a few shops in the village and there is no food delivery.
We decided to leave the village and go back to Balakliya. We had to go through Russian checkpoints, they were already set up. We had to meet Russian vehicles. By that time, the cars with civilians were already under fire for no reason, so it was very scary to drive. You didn’t know whether you would get there or not, whether it was the right decision or not…
Driving to meet a convoy that is adjusting the muzzle of a tank right at your car, even though you rolled down the windows and opened the doors so they could see that there were children inside… But you have no way out, you are completely dependent on the people who pointed that muzzle at you…
We decided to go to the city of Dnipro to visit our relatives, where there was no occupation.
Before the war, she and her husband worked as family doctors. Now in Dnipro we got a job, our children were transferred to a local school, a music school, and an art school. We try to provide them with everything they had before the war.
How did the children react? At first, it was fear and panic, or perhaps they passed on our fear.
Everything that had been before was broken… You couldn’t buy anything, especially food and other necessities.
We stayed with relatives in Dnipro for a few months, and now we rent a house, which is a big financial component that we didn’t have before, because we had our own house and absolutely everything we needed. The biggest need was all household items.