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When my son says: "Mom, you are the queen!" I forget everything. How does the family of Svetlana from Rubizhny live?

When my son says: "Mom, you are the queen!" I forget everything. How does the family of Svetlana from Rubizhny live?

Svetlana’s hometown in Ukraine is unrecognizable today. In Rubizhnye in the Luhansk region, barely a house remains, and in the former cozy courtyards and playgrounds you see only graves. Svetlana experienced both incredible happiness and burning pain there. One of her great joys arrived in 2019 when she became a mother.

"I wanted a child since I was 16 and I gave a birth at 25,” Svetlana said. “It was the happiest moment in my life.”

Together with her boyfriend, Svetlana rented a house and enjoyed motherhood, despite the hostilities taking place nearby. In Rubizhnoy, fighting began before the large-scale invasion. In mid-February, shelling became more frequent.

"We all thought that, like in 2014, they would shoot and calm down,” Svetlana said, referring to the Russian invasion that year. “We didn't even think about leaving the town.” But on February 18 an explosive wave shattered her windows and six days later a projectile hit Svetlana's house. She instantly protected her child Ilyushka, who was only two and a half years old at that time.

"Everything happened so suddenly,” Svetlana said. “I saw blood, but I didn't lose consciousness. Most of all, at that moment, I was afraid for my son: what happened to him? And then I heard his voice: ‘Mom, let’s get out of here.’ And then I realized, that I could not see where to go. I just couldn’t see.”

One of Svetlana’s eyes was torn by glass and debris. Above the other, her eyebrow was cut.

“Blood was flooding my face and I couldn't see anything at all,” Svetlana said. “I started calling for help, and suddenly a man spoke up: ‘Is anyone here?’”

Svetlana was most concerned about her son. Ilyushka had only two scratches on his forehead, because his mother took the brunt of the blow. The two were taken to Lysychansk, which had the closest hospital. Her cuts were sewn up, but there was no one left to remove the stitches. The doctors had left the city.

"When my bandages were removed for the first time in two days, everyone cried,” Svetlana said. “I kept saying, ‘Open at least one eye, I want to see my child.’ When I was done, I saw him as for the first time. I didn't see my son for two days, but it seemed like an eternity had passed."

Meanwhile, the sounds of explosions were non-stop. It was dangerous to stay in Luhansk region.

"A military friend helped us get out of there,” Svetlana said. “I am very grateful to him. If it wasn't for him, I can't even imagine what would has happened to us.”

After overcoming a difficult path, they found themselves away from the war, in the Caritas-Spes Vinnytsia social hostel. Here, a plastic surgeon from Kyiv heard about the family and offered his help. She has already undergone two operations, during which glass fragments were removed from her face and the most visible scars were minimized. More treatments are ahead.

"Two fragments of glass need to be removed, one is the size of a fingernail,” Svetlana said. “I constantly feel them under my skin, and they cause discomfort. And I also hope that the vision in the injured eye will recover. It was all cut, as many as 18 stitches were applied.”

The doctors give her hope but say the healing will take time.

"I have accepted the fact that my face will never be perfect. So let it be,” Svetlana said. “The main thing is that we are alive, my child is next to me, and this is my main support, my ray of hope in this life. This is my inspiration and the meaning of life. I just would not be able to go through all that happened to me neither mentally nor physically without him. For his sake, I will endure everything. When he approaches me, hugs me and says, ‘Mom, you are the best for me, you are the queen’,  I forget everything."

Svetlana is grateful for the support she has received. "The people here are very kind, they are simply incredible," says Svetlana. "They are extremely supportive both with kind words and with products. And Ilyushka was given so many things that he will have enough until he is 7 years old.”

Svetlana recently rented a small house and welcomed a new addition.

"Yesterday we got a dog,” Svetlana said. “We saw an ad that was saying 'I'm giving this dog to good people'. We went there and picked him up. Now I have two children. These are pleasant worries. It gives me a feeling of confidence. If we have taken responsibility for this little life, then we feel that we will manage and everything will be fine."

Still, Svetlana has two very big concerns- her parents, who are living under occupation in Luhansk region.

"There was no contact with them for a long time, almost six months,” Svetlana said. “When I heard them for the first time, it was such a joy! But they still stay there and it depresses me very much. The village is practically deserted. There are only two inhabited houses left on their street: my parents and another neighbor are still there.”

The situation is the same in other parts of the city. According to Svetlana, only elderly people remain. She says they can’t afford to leave.

"They demand a lot of money to let people get out – thousands of euros per person,” Svetlana said. “Sometimes, we talk with my mother and the connection appears there literally for an hour to an hour and a half a day, and there are explosions in the background. It doesn't stop for whole days and nights. How do they live there, what do they eat, do they have bread and medicine? I constantly think about it.”

Svetlana dreams of the war being over someday.

"I dream of seeing and hugging my parents, of sleeping peacefully, of not waking up from the sound of sirens,” Svetlana said. “I believe that it will happen. That we will go mushroom hunting, go to the river, that I will take my son to kindergarten and school there and I’ll be calm when he is there."

The shelter in Vinnytsia operates with the support of the Emergency Appeal project.

20 March 2023
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