Denis from Kherson survived the difficult days of the occupation, the interrogation of his mother and rejoiced at the liberation of the city. The guy shared his story during his vacation at the “Blogger Camp” as part of the “Rinat Akhmetov for Children” program..

Denis tells the “Voices of Peaceful” Museum of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation how terrible it was to live under occupation - everyone tried to avoid Russian soldiers, because there were cases of killings of civilians, food was expensive.

" When we saw Russians, we tried to hide, because we understood that they could simply kill us. People were shot in the park, even children and women. Prices were cloudy. A small yogurt cost 80 UAH, sausage – 600 UAH. We couldn't afford to buy much.. It was mostly pasta,” says Denis.

The family decided to leave, but couldn’t because the guy’s mother, a history teacher, was interrogated by the Russians. They found correspondence where they were called occupiers, and for a long 9 hours the family remained in the dark. Fortunately, Denis’s mother was released, and the family was forced to return to Kherson.

Hope for the liberation of the city was fading, they were afraid to leave, so they just tried to somehow move on with their lives.. But suddenly information began to spread that the occupiers were fleeing.

" At first they couldn’t believe the luck, but they saw the first Ukrainian Armed Forces vehicles. Everyone cried, we celebrated until three in the morning. I have a Ukrainian banner at home with the autographs of our military. It was incredible,” adds the young man.

After de-occupation, the city suffered every day from Russian shelling, so the decision was made to leave their home.

Denis now lives in Odessa. His strongest desire is for the war to end as quickly as possible and for us to drive the enemy out of our land.

Denis's story at the link.

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