8 years ago, Olena fled her hometown in Donetsk region to her parents’ village to escape warfare. On March 7, 2022, she was there again hiding from the Russian invasion for the second time when two shells hit her house
Before the war, Olena, her 4-year-old daughter Dasha and her husband lived in Volnovakha. The woman worked as a school physics teacher. As soon as the fighting began, the family went to their parents in the village of Volodymyrivka. Olena hoped to return home soon, when on March 7, 2022, two shells hit their house.
“We were all at home at that moment, we were saved only by a miracle and the rule of two walls in the corridor,” — recalls Olena. That day shells hit five more houses in the village. “A man was killed next door and his wife’s legs were torn off — she was also not saved.”
They fled to Kharkiv, but a few weeks later, a shell also hit a nearby house from where they had been settling. Then, she went by train to Lviv with her daughter. After that, they moved to Lutsk, where they stayed in a shelter for migrants.
“The most difficult thing now is that my parents are still in the village and there is no connection with them. They refused to leave, saying they would wait in the basement. And now we don’t know how they are doing.”
Olena and her daughter, like most of the internally displaced people, arrived wearing winter clothes, almost without any belongings. The charitable fund “Dobrodiy Club” helps families like Olena’s with basic needs, clothes, and supplies to survive. You can support the initiative here.
