Video

Zinayida Kostenko lives in Moshchun, a village near Kyiv. From the very first days of the war, Russian artillery shelled the village. Preliminary estimates say 75% of Moshchun’s houses were completely destroyed.

Halyna Khoroshchak was the victim of fierce bombing by Russian aircraft. They destroyed her apartment, and many of her friends were killed, injured, or went missing.

The war caught Mykola Kostenko near Kyiv in his native village, Moshchun. On the first day of war, he says, he counted up to 15 enemy helicopters over his house. Soon, they began to wipe his village off the face of the earth.

Victoria Andrusha is a teacher of mathematics and computer science. On March 25, 2022, she was abducted from her home in Stary Bykiv, Chernihiv Region.

Iryna Oliinyk’s apartment in Borodianka (Kyiv Region) was totally destroyed by Russian bombs; her husband and son were both seriously injured.

Volodymyr Zaika lives in Moshchun (Kyiv Region). He witnessed terrible battles near Kyiv and describes how the Russians deliberately destroyed his village.

Svitlana lives in Moshchun, a village in the Kyiv Region. Moshchun was occupied by Russian troops during the very first days of the war. That wasn’t the worst, however: the village was practically wiped out by enemy artillery.

LIke in other cities under Russian occupation, extrajudicial prisons were used in Kherson to torture locals suspected of loyalty to Ukraine.

Russians tortured Ukrainian civilians and servicemen and held them captive under poor conditions. According to some reports, even minors were detained in underground bunkers.

Yuriy Pladko recalls how his village was shelled in the spring. After the Russians were pushed back from Kyiv, residents of nearby villages began finding bodies. “When people were leaving, they didn’t see it. But when they were returning, that’s when they could see everything,” says Pladko, who’s own grandson was killed.

Kateryna lived in Saltivka, a large residential area of Kharkiv. From the first day of the war until the liberation of Kharkiv Region, it was subject to regular shelling, especially in the north.

“The mines were exploding right next to me,” says Hanna Nuflik, who lived in a basement for more than a month while the “ground shook” in her city from the shelling. “I want peace, to live on my land, and I don’t want anything else!” — Hanna appeals to the Russians.

We spoke with Oleksiy, a charismatic sports host from Mariupol, in May. After that interview with Oleksiy, where he described how he helped everyone from his bomb shelter to escape, his story appeared in several publications worldwide.

Vitaly Stepanenko is 22. It’s not the first time he’s been trapped by war. He was 14 when fighting began in his native Donbas. When he was older, he moved to the Kyiv Region and settled in Dymer village. On 25 February Russian forces occupied Dymer: after that he saw all kinds of horror.

Tetiana Reznichenko lives in suburb of the Ukrainian capital. The first days of war were a living hell for its residents. Enemy artillery bombarded them. On 7 March a bomb was dropped on the building where Tatyana lived. Part of the block, from the ground up to the top floor was completely destroyed.

Olena Kulynovych lives in the Horenka suburb of the Ukrainian capital. An enemy shell landed right in her building. She left home for a short while but then came back. Today she is living there without light, water or gas.

Tamara Buhera lives in the village of Kozarovychi in the Kyiv Region. Her village was occupied during the first days of the war. Her friend’s son reached agreement with the Russians that he would take the women by car to a safe place. When they drove past the road-block, however, the soldiers opened fire.

52-year-old Valentyn Hryshchenko comes from Dymer village near Kyiv. During the occupation he helped distribute humanitarian aid and was arrested for doing so. He was tossed “into a cellar”, interrogated and tortured.

Mariia Sigaieva, an 80 year old philologist from Kharkiv, was born during wartime 1942, and now she is afraid of dying during another war. She and her daughter are forced to live in a bomb shelter as a missile hit their apartment, just like a needle, on the second day of the Russian invasion