Alex’s Story (12 yrs old)
This day started positively in my family. It was a typical February 24th. My mother and I went to meet my sister, who came to visit us from Kharkiv. Around 4 a.m., we arrived home, nothing out of the ordinary. We went to sleep, I had to go to school next day, the adults to work. A military plane flew over our house, and after that, three powerful explosions shook the area. Goosebumps covered my body. At that moment, I was terrified and didn’t understand what was happening. My mother said that the war had begun. We quickly started getting dressed and packing our things.
Where we were going and what would happen to us tomorrow, nobody knew. Every night, I was afraid to go to sleep, afraid that I wouldn’t wake up, that I would never see my family again, that I would never be able to say a word. In my hometown, my beloved Melitopol, Russian occupiers entered from the first day of the war. Back then, we thought and believed, “Just 2-3 weeks, and it will all end. They won’t stay here for long.” It took a long time for us to realize that unfortunately, it wasn’t the case. That’s when we started planning to leave our hometown, to leave our home behind. Our parents discussed the route, all the details. But we couldn’t make up our minds. We hesitated because every day, reading the news, we saw “a column of peaceful people shot, trying to leave the occupied territory.” We were afraid that the same would be written about us. But we still decided to try. Our grandmothers, relatives, and friends saw us off, hoping that we would see each other soon. It was very painful. You leave your homeland because of that damn war. When you will return, when you will see your loved ones again, no one knew. We were simply fleeing from the war indefinitely. Nevertheless, we tried, we succeeded, and we went to the center of our country, to Kropyvnytskyi, where it was relatively calm and peaceful. Peaceful, but when we heard the first air raid siren… It’s indescribable. It’s very scary. But there were significantly fewer air strikes here. After a month, we completed all the necessary documents and went to Slovakia.
We went to Slovakia with my older sister, and our parents stayed here in Ukraine. We ended up in an unfamiliar country, but I want to thank all the ordinary people and volunteers who helped us throughout our stay in Slovakia, from beginning to end. It was very heartwarming when complete strangers did EVERYTHING for you and even more. They understood our situation and supported us in everything. We went to school, traveled to different cities, almost becoming part of the community, but it wasn’t the same. We longed for home. And finally, we decided to return to Ukraine because we missed our parents so much.
Now my sister is in America, and we are here, waiting for the moment when we can finally go back home. We live with the hope that it will all end soon. But to make it end, we need help. Ukrainians need help. Ukraine needs help! It’s very difficult to go through all of this, but we are strong, we are free. Glory to Ukraine!
