Photo by Katya Moskalyuk

Victoria has a large family: her parents, her husband, her daughter, her sister, her sister’s husband, and dogs. In peacetime, she worked in Kyiv in a logistics company. On the sixth day of the war, she decided to leave. They spent two nights in the basement, then moved in with her sister in a cottage near the school with the shelter.

‘There was a shelter near the house, but we were not allowed to go there due to the lack of space. The shelter was overcrowded,’ says Victoria. Their house in Kyiv is located near the village of Hostomel, where fierce fighting has been going on since the beginning of the war. The family could hear the explosions.

At first, they planned to go by car. Victoria was afraid because she would have to go with her sister and daughter only, without their husbands. At eight o’clock in the morning, they arrived at the railway station and boarded an evacuation train leaving Kharkiv.

‘We were going to stay in the city until the end of the war, but it became psychologically difficult. There was a shortage of medicines and food. We had to bake bread ourselves. We were afraid for the kid,’ Victoria says with tears in her eyes.

They took with them only documents and a set of clothes to change. They even left their underwear because Victoria realized that she had to put all her life in a suitcase.’ She repacked again and again until she had only a lightweight bag and a backpack. Photos and memorabilia were left behind. All the photographs were in the phone memory. However, her daughter Christina took a set for needlework. The girl is ten years old, and she loves to make bracelets and rings of beads.

Now Victoria and her daughter and sister live at the Lviv Sports Club in the shelter organized by volunteers. She tries to rest from the road and keeps in touch with her husband, father, and friends.

‘Five days ago, my friend gave birth to a child, and she also decided to leave. She was discharged from the hospital because there were many patients, and the baby was not vaccinated,’ says Victoria. ‘There are many patients because the maternity hospital has been transferred to the general hospital, and they admit everyone. Now my friend is also in Lviv. She stays with her friends’

Victoria’s husband and father stay at home, in Kyiv. According to Victoria, her father had been to war in Afghanistan, so now he fears nothing. He says he will defend his home, his city, and his country. Victoria’s daughter helps her to hold on. Christina tenderly hugs her mother when her eyes are wet with tears. Victoria has relatives in Germany, and she wants to go there.

‘In one moment, you live a full life, and in the next one, you wander like a beggar,‘ says Victoria. ‘I hope it’s all temporary, and I will return home.’