“If you don’t come for me, I’ll do something to myself,” Vira wrote to her older sister when she could no longer bear the torment from her stepfather during the occupation. Her late mother’s husband threatened to send the girl to an orphanage if Maryna didn’t come for her in due time while continuously bullying his stepdaughter.

Before the war, Vira was an ordinary schoolgirl who loved to travel and dreamed of discoveries. The full-scale invasion changed everything overnight. First came the bombings, which shook the walls and forced her to flee with her mother and stepfather to a neighboring village. Then came the occupation, bringing tricolor flags to the streets of the city, new rules, and a lot of sorrow for those who loved Ukraine.

The girl was forced to attend a russian school, where students had to sing the anthem of the aggressor country during breaks, and they taught “talks about important matters” instead of regular subjects. In these lessons, they spoke about how “dangerous” it was in Ukraine. High school students were recruited into the “Young Army” where children were militarized and involved in public works. And 13-year-old Vira was just trying to survive in this horror: hiding from drunken occupiers who harassed her on the street, enduring humiliation from her collaborator stepfather and teachers.

After her mother’s death, life turned into a hell. Her stepfather treated the girl like a housekeeper. He forced her to cook and clean. Vira didn’t even have her room or bed. So, at night, she would sit in the kitchen. And she could sleep during the day when her stepfather was out. The man constantly tormented the child, didn’t feed her properly, didn’t give her any personal space, and only allowed her to go out when he was in a good mood. But the worst part was that he turned her against her sister, saying he would only let her see her “over his dead body.”

“My heart broke when my sister called and told me what she was going through,” recalls Maryna. She began gaining guardianship over her sister, but it took many months. When she finally received the necessary documents, the hardest part began—getting the child out of the occupation.

Thanks to the Save Ukraine team, the sisters met for the first time in six years. “When we crossed the Ukrainian border, the emotions were impossible to contain. Vira said she felt like it was her birthday,” Maryna recalls, unable to hold back tears.

Today, Vira is safe, but the occupation has left invisible scars. Constant stress, the loss of her mother, and her stepfather’s abuse have all taken a toll on the girl’s health. But ahead lies a new life and her dream of becoming a psychologist to help children like herself.

Thousands of Ukrainian children remain under occupation. Share this story so that as many people as possible learn about what they are enduring.