A large family with a child with a disability survived Russian invasion by spending nights in the woods in a handmade wickiup

The village of Velykyi Sambir in Sumy region that borders Russia is among those places that suffered from the Russian invasion.

“They [Russian soldiers] were shooting at the houses, everywhere. So that’s why we went to the woods,” tells Nataliia Bilan, a mother of four minor children.

She and her husband made a wickiup in the bushes near the river bank. They were hiding there only in the clothes they were wearing. Not to be detected, they were lying on the ground, hugging their four children, trying to warm them up.

The house of this family survived. Now when the village is finally liberated, only burned military vehicles on the roadsides and shattered neighbors’ houses remind of the presence of Russian soldiers.