Mariupol resident Ekaterina told how, together with her daughter, she tried to survive in the city, which the Russian invaders are trying to destroy. The family managed to evacuate to Lviv, now they are safe and are trying to equip their life destroyed by the war. The story of Ekaterina and Sasha was published by the Mariupol site 0629. com.

“Don’t wait for the end, staring at the clock, Then you breathe freely on the edge. And the bullets that find you, You won't hear, And the rest will fly by" Every day for the last three weeks in Mariupol, I repeated these words of Makarevich like a mantra. They helped me overcome fear,” says Ekaterina.

The whole meaning of her life these days came down to one single goal - to save her daughter Sasha. Every day, during shelling, a woman leaned over her daughter, covering her from the threat. In three weeks, her back has bent so much that she still cannot straighten up..

- Mom, what if we die I'm scared.

- Don't be afraid baby. " If we were destined to die, we won't feel a thing. It won't hurt. Do not be afraid.

- Mom, if we do not die, but are wounded?

- No, my daughter, this will not happen..

For three weeks, nine-year-old Sasha slept in a ski helmet to protect her in case of a head wound.. Catherine trained her daughter: “You are sleeping. Anxiety. get up. Boots here. Helmet. Jacket - you grab it in the corridor, you get dressed already there ”.

“Sasha has become very disciplined. I only briefly say - to the bathroom! And she silently instantly - there. She didn't seem to care. Collected such. Silent. I just painted everything in black…”, says the woman.

Ekaterina and her husband were vacationing in Bukovel when the war began. February 25 returned to Mariupol. On the East (one of the districts of the city - ed.. ) already blazed.

The woman says that she and her husband were sure that in eight years the city had turned into a fortress, and nothing terrible would happen to it.. Those who fled in the early days of the Russian invasion seemed to them to be traitors to Mariupol. But when the carpet bombing began, Catherine thought she was wrong..

Catherine's husband is a doctor. He almost did not appear at home, spent the night in the hospital. “Mom, why, when dad works, we eat once a day, and when dad comes, then two? "

Doctors worked in terrible tension, in those short hours when the husband came home, the woman cooked for him and all his colleagues. He took porridge, pilaf with him to the hospital - everything that he could cook, and fed his colleagues who lived far from the hospital and could not go home.

“When we lost electricity and water, and there was still a little gas, my mother and I understood what everything was going to. They pulled out all the meat that was in the refrigerator, and began to stew it on gas. Almost extinguished - ran out of gas. But this stew saved us. We mixed with cereals and cooked porridge on a fire in the yard,” says the woman.

To be useful, she began to volunteer. I bought medicines for the hospital, the necessary things for young mothers and babies, delivered all this around the city. But on March 1, her husband forbade her to leave the house because of the all-out shelling and said that dozens of wounded were admitted to the hospital every day..

Every day around the house where the family lived, shells exploded. They blocked the windows in the apartment with children's mattresses, blankets, so that the glass would not hurt anyone.. And then frosts came to the city and the temperature in the apartment dropped to +6.

Already in the first days, a Grad rocket hit the ninth floor of the house, but did not explode. So I stayed stuck in the wall. The woman adds: they understood that at any moment she could explode, but continued to stay at home.

- Mom, why does everyone go to the basement, but we don’t?

- It's because we are crazy, daughter.

In fact, the woman was afraid to catch some kind of disease in a cold and damp basement, where a large number of people accumulated.. After all, it was not worth counting on treatment in a blocked city..

“We drew, read, learned English. I had to do something with the child.. Then in the afternoon, the neighbors' children began to pull up to us.. We all had fun together, ”says Ekaterina.

There was water, we managed to get technical water into the bath and buy drinking, carbonated drinks in the store at the end of February - they took any liquid that was still. According to the woman, it was painful for her to watch how some Mariupol residents looted, stole not only food.

“I understand food. But here I look at the 17th microdistrict, a woman drags 15 bags from the store. 15! This shop belongs to my friend. And I know how hard it was for her to open it, how difficult it was for her to run her business.. I ask, well, why do you need 15 bags during the war? No answer. It's unpleasant to watch. Gross,"

The most difficult day was March 14 - then the city was shelled very hard, her husband was not at home for four days, and the woman mentally said goodbye to her life.

“But in the morning my husband returned from the hospital and said: let's go. We got into the car and drove off. You know, during the shelling, I prayed for the car as much as for my relatives.. Since she was our last hope for salvation, ”recalls Ekaterina.

On the way, the woman first saw the extent of the destruction and was horrified:.

“We sat all the time in our apartment and only went out into the yard to cook food.. I thought, well, maybe it's only in our area that it's so terrible, but in other places in Mariupol everything is fine. And then I saw my native Mariupol. It's just awful! City - destroyed. It's such a pain. And this can not be forgiven... "

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Mariupol has remained under constant heavy shelling since the start of a full-scale Russian invasion. The occupiers literally wipe the city off the face of the earth and destroy its inhabitants with particular cruelty. There is no water, heating, heat and light in the city, people are forced to constantly hide in shelters without the ability to get food and water..

Russian military blocks Ukrainian-proposed humanitarian corridors, instead offering exhausted people to go to Russia.

On March 21, the occupiers offered to open the corridors so that military men and civilians could come out along them and lay down their arms.. Ukraine refused to surrender the city.

Having not achieved the desired, the Russian Federation began to forcibly take people out of the city. Ukrainians are brought to filtration camps, where documents are taken away. After that, they are taken to work in distant regions of the Russian Federation.. Such actions by the occupiers are a war crime..