Anna (49), Sofia (17), Maria (15)

Bratislava, October 25, 2022, 245th day of the war

From her storytelling, you can feel the pain of what her family has endured. The pain of her parents and her husband's parents still being there. Sympathy for the families who lost what was most precious to them. But then she straightened up and spoke with a smile about the determination to leave, about the safety and joy she feels here every day, and about the gratitude for the help and acceptance she and her family have received. Every day she gives thanks for surviving everything in good health. She thanks for making the right decision and escaping from Mariupol.

"Mariupol is an industrial city, about the size of Bratislava. My husband worked in one of the two local factories, but the work situation was getting worse, and the salary was decreasing, so he left. I started my own business; I had several clothing stores. Later, I found a job in tea and coffee distribution. For the past four years, I have been a sales representative, and I enjoyed the work. My husband came to work with us in the company. We were doing very well. I earned €500 - €1000 per month, and together with my husband's income, we had good money by local standards. We didn't have a car, but we built a house where my mother also lived with us."

"In our city, the fighting had been going on since 2014. The front was only 15 km away from us, so we often heard explosions. Therefore, when Russia invaded Ukraine, most people in Mariupol stayed in the city; they were accustomed to the sounds of combat. We couldn't imagine that we would experience a real war. We weren't prepared for it. When we were surrounded on February 28th (the 4th day of the war), that's when we started massive grocery shopping. We thought we would survive it, but the opposite turned out to be true. Soon, the first bomb fell in our backyard. One of the fragments flew through my kitchen. If I had been there at the time, maybe I wouldn't be alive now. Our neighbour's house was completely destroyed. Fortunately, at that time, they were already out of the city with their family. The explosion hit their barn and killed a goat. They also had chickens and ducks, which helped us. We had eggs, and we used the wood from the collapsed barn for heating."

"Internet and phone signal disappeared in the first days of the war. We had no information about what was happening. The neighbour's ducks started dying after a few days, so we started eating them one by one. That saved us. There was almost nothing left in the stores, and looting began. When we heard that a store had been broken into and it was possible to go there, we went as well to have something to eat. Many times, we went in the dark with flashlights, picking up what was left on the ground. We didn't have a big cellar, so my mother and mother-in-law squeezed in there too, sleeping on shelves above the preserves. When it was -2 degrees Celsius inside, it was good. Those were tough times. There was no water, and we couldn't wash. We used the water we bought before the war for the children. We drank rainwater that we tried to filter. Later, we found a well a few streets away, and the whole neighbourhood went there to get water. Sometimes people standing in line for water were hit by shrapnel from explosions and died."

"There was no electricity. In the evening, we illuminated the space with Christmas decorations powered by batteries. It was extremely cold, and the children started getting frostbite so severe that their nails still haven't grown back. When I was cleaning potatoes wearing thick gloves, I cried from the pain because my fingers were completely frozen. I was most afraid of not having anything to cook for the children, running out of insulin, and Sonja dying in my arms."

"Our house was hit again. A grenade exploded in the garage. My heart stopped beating; I didn't know if I wanted to go outside and see what happened. What if my husband wasn't alive? What if he was bleeding? What was I supposed to do? Despite the fear, I was outside in an instant and saw that my husband was alive. Everything was destroyed, but fortunately, he was standing in the shadow of a wall that caught all the shrapnel. I am grateful; we are one of the few families who didn't lose anyone."

"Life in occupied Mariupol was not easy. We only ate twice a day, and I tried to cook mainly potatoes, various porridges, and pancakes. My daughters will probably never eat pancakes again; they grew tired of them. Perhaps the worst part was listening to the daily announcements from megaphones, starting as early as 6 a.m. First, they played Soviet music, and then the announcement: 'Ukrainian soldier! Surrender, and nothing will happen to you!' I received a similar message on my phone; I still have that message. Russians went from house to house, checking if any soldiers were hiding. They came to our place too. The city was under complete control of the occupiers, and the last soldiers were at Azovstal. After the check, we received a confirmation of our address and a permit to move around the city. We had to carry that piece of paper constantly. Checkpoints were established in the city, and soldiers only let you through with that confirmation. Later, there was a so-called filtration when soldiers officially registered us, asking about our relationship with the Ukrainian government and country, our relationship with Russia and Putin, and so on. It wasn't pleasant, but we wanted to survive, so our answers reflected that. They also took our fingerprints. Fortunately, everything happened without torture."

"Despite what we saw around us, we tried not to lose our minds and live as normally as possible. On Easter, we decorated eggs with the children, and my husband and I baked our traditional Easter cake called 'kulič' from the remaining flour and sugar over the fire. We did everything to maintain an unbroken spirit."

"My in-laws' apartment is completely destroyed. It burned down entirely, and they only found the remains of their charred cat. Now they are staying with my parents in our house. At their age, they don't want to leave their home and start over. Many people ask me why I didn't take them with us. A friend of mine tried to evacuate her parents. Her mother was shot in one of the buses, so even that option is not entirely safe. Fortunately, we had a house. Those who had apartments in apartment buildings don't have a garden or any crops. They cook together over a fire in front of the entrance. I heard a story about a family that, besides a spoonful of honey per day for each person, had no food. Due to constant bombing, they didn't leave the basement for over a month."

"We started preparing to leave Mariupol. We knew we would need a confirmation of enrollment for our daughters' studies. With fear in our hearts, we went to their school, where, fortunately, we found everything we needed. We had planned to leave on May 13th, but due to intense fighting, it wasn't possible. The Russians also destroyed the bridge we had planned to cross. The battle for Azovstal was ongoing, with the Russians bombing and launching constant attacks. The sound of airplanes is something I still fear. To plan our escape, we had to venture deeper into the occupied areas where there was internet and signal. I managed to contact my former supervisor, who had left some time ago. He was shocked to learn that we were still in Mariupol. I explained that I didn't know how to leave and that I didn't have any money for escape. He helped us! Sending money to a war zone is not easy, especially larger sums. The money was transferred to a completely unfamiliar person who handed it over to us. Then we had to contact another completely unknown person, a facilitator. We paid him €1,400 for the transportation of our family of four. The journey took several days. The border between the Donetsk People's Republic and the Russian Federation was extremely strict. The Russians checked all our contacts, social networks, and asked numerous intricate questions. They inquired about everyone we knew, our stance towards Ukraine and Russia. They even asked us to report the names of soldiers and their addresses, as well as people we knew who supported Ukraine. I witnessed them scrutinizing my Facebook account. At that moment, I remembered that at the beginning of the war, I wrote a status saying 'Glory to Ukraine!' I started crying, mentioning that my child has diabetes and urgently needs medication. I didn't have to lie; it was the truth. The police officer seemed visibly disturbed, and fortunately, he stopped focusing on my statuses. They asked us where we were going, to provide an address in Russia. My husband and I agreed to mention Moscow. I had an acquaintance there who worked as a diabetologist, and I had her number in my phone. They immediately checked it and found out that the woman was in Estonia. We told them we would have to find someone else. Fortunately, they let us go. At that moment, I received an SMS saying that Son's godfather had surrendered in Azovstal. If I had received it a few minutes earlier, I don't know how things would have turned out."

"We were already in Russia, on our way to a new life. We exchanged two cars, two facilitators, and after two days, we reached the Latvian border. It was just a formality there. From there, we went to Warsaw and eventually to Bratislava. We stayed in touch with Karolina and Eli, who helped us tremendously. What they accomplished and how they helped us was like a fairytale. On May 19th, we arrived in Bratislava, and on the 24th, Eli called to say she had an apartment for us, and the next day, I could start working. Today, we have everything we needed, and thanks to Eli, I have an excellent job. Eli is our guardian angel who, when she appears, replenishes us with energy. I'm grateful to have her!"

"When we came here, we didn't know anyone. Slovaks are wonderful people, and I have almost exclusively positive experiences with them. The language is very similar too. I don't have many Ukrainian acquaintances here, although Eli tried to find some for us. In reality, I don't need new people in my life. I need those who stayed back home. My daughters attend a hotel academy, and they really like it. The lessons are a bit challenging because they're in Slovak, but we're trying. I'm happy that we decided to leave. My friend wanted to stay, but she eventually escaped to Zhytomyr. The Russians attacked there as well, and she had to run away again. Putin thinks he can do anything and that Russians are the masters of the world, that everything belongs to them. Like everyone in Ukraine, we also have acquaintances and part of our family in Russia. However, since 2014, our relationships and contacts have significantly cooled down. It wasn't possible to have a normal conversation with them; they didn't believe us. When we traveled through Russia and Moscow, the sight of that country literally suffocated me. It's a country that pretends to be something, but in reality, it's a state of decline."

"Every day, I thank my lucky stars for how well we turned out. My friend's son died in her arms. They were walking down the street when the attack began. Her son was hit by shrapnel. Since the attack continued, and her daughter and mother were with her, she had to leave his body there and flee to a shelter. She still doesn't know where her son's body is or if it's even buried. A colleague of mine went outside her house, and suddenly a half-meter bomb fell in front of her. She was born again for the second time because it didn't explode. People often had to run out of burning buildings. There was an incident where one basement caught fire. A mother and daughter managed to escape, but they had to leave behind their grandmother, who couldn't move on her own anymore. People even live in cowsheds with their livestock because their homes were destroyed. Our house still stands, and all the damages can be repaired."

"When we were walking down the street and the shooting started, I told my daughters to look only at my back and run behind me. I didn't want them to see it and remember it. I will forever imagine Mariupol as it once was. A beautiful city that had seen a lot of investment in recent years, and you could feel like you were in Europe. Today, out of its previous population of half a million, there are already tens of thousands dead. The graves in the city can even look like overturned bathtubs with just the name of the deceased written on them. Those are the conditions in which the city is living today."

"In Mariupol, only those who couldn't leave or those who didn't want to remain. There were also some who were waiting for the Russians. I don't know why they think it will be better with them. Many things have changed in interpersonal relationships. There are topics that are better left unspoken. It's a diplomacy of silence. At some point, I also said to myself that I no longer want to argue with anyone. The propaganda was stronger than me; you couldn't escape it. If you disagreed with the new policies and reality, they could take away your children and strip you of parental rights. Life there is filled with great uncertainty, so we decided to flee and change our lives. One of the biggest motivations for us to survive was to spite Putin, to not die, to outlive him and witness the moment when he perishes!"

"We only brought posters for the girls and some cups from the kitchen. Miraculously, they remained untouched after the explosion. They are our talismans. I also brought a coffee maker because I heard that the coffee in Bratislava isn't good (laughter). I want to convey to everyone that I haven't lost hope, that I'm positive and strong, and so is our country. Please stop believing the propaganda, stop asking questions like why should you help us militarily. Don't forget what happened to you in the past and that it was done by the same people!"