My name is Lena, I’m from Kharkiv. On February 24, when it all started, I couldn’t sleep after Putin’s speech, and soon we heard explosions. My parents went to Transcarpathia, my mother and sisters moved from there to Poland, and my stepfather stayed in Transcarpathia. My partner, my best friend and her partner and I spent the first five days of the war in Kharkiv, because my friend started having severe nervous tics, and I had to look for medical help for her. They put her in intensive care, tied her arms and legs for some reason and started dripping haloperidol, three different neuroleptics, on the move and anti-anxiety. Then it turned out that the doctor was using physical violence against her, and we had to pull her out. After that , the four of us got to the station

I’m used to sleeping lightly, after all, parenthood has been my main profession for many years. I woke up from the explosions. My husband, too. We went to make coffee, decided not to wake the children yet. They sleep in their rooms. Daughters 13, the middle son is 10 and the youngest is 5. Today is February 24. Exactly four days ago I turned 45, and I decided that I would finally be able to act not under the pressure of circumstances, but by my own choice. An adult girl already.

I overslept beginning of the war, to be honest. We agreed with a friend to meet on Thursday the 24th at a coffee shop and work from there. And in the morning I received a message from him that, apparently, the plans have changed. I didn’t immediately understand what had happened. I went to watch the news, and there was a war. And shock. Now we joke that Thursday was stolen from us.

Hello! My name is Sasha, I am 35 years old. Nationality has never been important to me. Personality has always been important to me. I moved to my beloved girlfriend from Russia to Kyiv in 2016. My parents were panicking on Skype and shouting: “Don’t go outside! Don’t speak Russian! Russians are being killed here!” I answered in perplexity: “But here half of them speak Russian calmly.”

My name is Tatiana. From the age of 12, I lived in Kharkiv, before that my family lived in Volgograd. My family consists of children, a partner, a mother, and a dog. I live (lived) on the eastern outskirts of Kharkiv. On February 24, at 5 a.m., I saw on the horizon, where there was a military unit, the glow of a fire, and a column of smoke. Mom came running from the next room: “Is this a war?..”

My name is Nastya, I live in Ukraine, the village of Rozovka, about 40 km from Mariupol. I have a permanent residence permit in Ukraine, my children (7 years and 4 years) are citizens of Ukraine, but my citizenship, unfortunately, — Russia.

My name is Nastya. I lived in Lviv for about seven years, and two months ago we decided to return to Kharkiv. On the day the war started, my husband woke me up with a call at 5:39. He shouted into the phone that we were being bombed so that I would grab the children and wait for him. We decided at that moment to try to go to Kyiv, and then to Lviv. When we ran out to the minibus – it was no longer possible to call a taxi — there were a lot of people on the street, they ran to the shops to buy groceries. We got into the minibus to the sounds of explosions.

My name is Yulia, I’m 30 years old, and I can’t say exactly where I’m from anymore. The Russians took my house for the first time in 2014. I was born and raised in Yalta, moved to Kyiv at the age of 17 when I entered the university. I still haven’t been able to work out the problem of the lost house, even with a psychologist. As soon as my psychologist asks about Crimea, I’m starting to cry. Now I’m writing this and roaring too.

I am 36 years old, was born in Kyiv, and lived there until recently. I am not married, I take care of a 96-year-old grandfather with dementia, a slightly younger grandmother, two cats (one with urolithiasis). I draw vector pictures for sale, old people are paid a good pension, they somehow managed before the war.

Almost a month of war has passed. I’m used to air alarms and air defense. There is no fear, only a reflex – to take cover. And if the air defense – move away from the windows. Odessa was shelled by a Russian ship from the sea the other night. I live close to the beaches, and around five in the morning I woke up from a hellish cannonade. But I was drinking corvalol at night, and I just couldn’t get up physically. I’m lying down, I hear these explosions and I think: I need to get up, wake up my mom, and then I think: well, fuck into the house, that’s how it will be, I’m tired.