Russian special forces raided the Serhiyko and Anzhelika’s children’s rooms twice. The first time they jumped over the fence without opening the gate. They rummaged through children’s things in the house: phones, clothes, textbooks. They were looking for something even in the kitchen, in the freezer, and on the shelves between the dishes. The second raid happened on Christmas Day. Not even a big Christian holiday stopped them.

The russians were looking for the children’s uncle, Mykola, who was a former anti-terrorist serviceman, and after the occupation of Kherson, he cooperated with our GUR. But on the night before May 9, the man was detained, and by that time he had already been imprisoned in a russian prison for six months: first in Kherson, and then he was transferred to Crimea and finally to russia. There he is considered a terrorist, for which he is being convicted.

Serhiyko recalls how scared he was when the russians broke down the gate at their home before entering the yard. And he still clearly remembers the inscriptions on their chevrons: “They will simply die, and we will go to heaven”, “They are demons, but God is with us”, and “Glory to Russia”. In their hands were AK-74, M-16, or K-37. They told the children that their fishing rods were weapons, and always asked provocative questions: Whose Krym? Do you go to school? Does your mother have a passport? Therefore, Serhii was frightened that they would do something bad or take the whole family away.

Serhiyko and Anzhelika’s mother worked in the civil service before the occupation and she was perfectly aware of her responsibility. She was afraid to leave the occupation right away because at the checkpoints she could simply be detained and taken to the basement because of her military brother. Nevertheless, living in such conditions was very tough. Tetiana didn’t go to work for the russians, because until February 24, she was working as a civil servant and was clearly aware of her responsibility. She didn’t take a russian passport and didn’t make payments for the children to somehow survive. In addition, it meant that the children had to go to a russian school. And she really didn’t want that.

For a whole year, the children were close only to their mother and did not communicate even with their peers, so that no one would take them away from her. They hardly slept because they were afraid of any noise. Every time they heard dogs barking in the yard, they immediately got anxious and looked out the window to see if they had come for them this time. The russians could find fault with the correspondence with the lawyer about the problem of the brother or through the documents of the criminal case and detain them.

There was not enough money for toys for children or a long and far trip across several borders. However, Tetiana definitely decided to leave the occupation and was looking for an opportunity to do so. By the new year, she would still be forced to take a russian passport, or they would simply take the children away. People without russian passports were not allowed out of the cities, their names were written down and they were told that they would come to them in two weeks. If you don’t have passports, you will go to the basement.

There was no time to wait any longer. All summer, the occupation authorities have been going around the yards and imposing russian documents. Less and less time remained until the new school time. That’s why Tatiana intensified her search for opportunities to leave. I understood that it would be difficult and expensive. None of the carriers gave discounts for children. So finally Tetiana sent a message to the official Facebook page of Save Ukraine with a request. She was answered immediately, and after 4 days our volunteers were already offered the option of departure.

The woman didn’t take a single gadget from home. She bought new phones for the children so that they were clean and did not have any information, because the russians connected the devices and very quickly understood the circle of communication, especially when it was the SBU, the Armed Forces, etc. Her friend, who worked in the regional state administration, was interrogated very hard after checking the phone.

Tatiana was lucky that no one found out that she was a civil servant. According to legend, she was a saleswoman. I was worried because I didn’t know the route completely.

Having already crossed the border of Ukraine, even after a few days, she did not believe that it was possible to use the phone freely, that one does not need to turn on a VPN, because they can trace her, that one can say whatever one wants.

She went nowhere with her children. She has no relatives in the controlled territory of Ukraine. During the first month, she will rest a little in Kyiv, she is already looking for a job as a civil servant, perhaps in Mykolaiv or Odesa. And most importantly, she plans to free her brother from russian captivity.

P.S. The names of the characters have been changed for security reasons