Lilia went through a real hell in her native Mariupol in the spring of 2022.

Russians killed the girl’s stepfather with a shot to the head. He was buried next to those whom the man had helped bury. Then her great-grandmother was almost died by a russian bomb, and Lilya was wounded in the leg. During the war, there was nothing to treat the injury, so the girl walked around with a swollen leg and pain. Later, her mother died of the injury.

The girl lived with her boyfriend’s parents. It was miraculously lucky that before the war started, they had stockpiled pasta and a large container of water. They melted snow and collected rain. They cherished drinking water as the apple of their eye. For food, they ate pigeons to survive. The only means of communication was the radio. That’s how thhey heard that the road to get out of Mariupol went through Mangush, Berdiansk, and then to Zaporizhzhia.

Only in April, after a month and a half of occupation, she manage to leave Mariupol. They walked past russian checkpoints during pauses for enemy artillery to reload. On the way, there were many dead bodies of local residents. Because of her leg injury, every step and street near the factories was worth her life. The russians then mined 4 civilian evacuation buses and offered Mariupol residents to ride in them to automatically trigger the detonation. They passed through the factories, but did not even realize that the Ukrainian military was based there, and the danger they were exposing themselves to.

Lilya was carrying a heavy backpack, which she used to fall down with during shelling and could no longer get up because of the pain in her leg. She says she was literally lifted by that backpack like a dog by the skin. The girl was wearing a long reversible down jacket and deliberately turned the pink hood up so that the military could see that the girl was walking first. Everyone then believed that no one would shoot at her.

Meanwhile, Lili’s brother Artem remained in her hometown, on the opposite bank. But she could not take him with her because it was too far and dangerous to go to him. Her father did not allow her to risk her life. Then the girl thought that the war would end quickly, so she would meet him later. Because there was no connection with them anyway.

Artem lived with his grandmother and great-grandmother under fire for about a month. And when their apartment was destroyed by the russians, volunteers took them to Ryazan to treat his great-grandmother for her injury. When the city became quieter and the great-grandmother was better, they were returned home. Fortunately, the volunteers, although russian, supported the Ukrainians and made sure that social services did not take the boy to an orphanage.

Artem is a complete orphan. His mom and dad (Lily’s stepfather) died. After his mother’s death, the documents for guardianship were quickly drawn up by another grandmother who did not live with Artem, just to receive money for the child. But the boy never lived with her. The woman received 10 thousand rubles for him, and Artem lived with strangers associated with the volunteers. Lilya asked that his great-grandmother and grandmother with a disability, whose apartment was destroyed and with whom he had lived before, take him in. But there was not always a connection with them. Her sister was afraid that her brother would be taken to an orphanage and then adopted by a russian family, and she would never see him again. So Lilya decided to go back to Mariupol to get Artem.

To travel to the territory of russia, Lily first had to collect the necessary package of documents. It took several months and a lot of effort. Luckily, she managed to meet Save Ukraine volunteers who helped her organize the trip and all the documents with consultations. She was very nervous before the trip. However, everything went smoothly, and now Lilya and Artem are in Ukraine, safe and sound. The girl is studying to be a designer, works in the digital field, and her boyfriend is serving in the Armed Forces. And Artem is very happy that he is finally with his sister.