The mother and son spent 40 days of Chernihiv's occupation in the basement. How do they live, what dreams do they have today, and what keeps them hoping for better times?
Bohdan is nine years old. He likes to make various original figures out of clay, shoot videos for his YouTube channel, and go for walks with his friends. But most of all, he loves toys. The boy has so many toys that they seem to fill the entire space of his two-room apartment. “This is his childhood world,” smiles his mother Halyna, “something that has always given him joy. Unfortunately, the war turned the happy world of our children upside down...”
We arrived in Chernihiv at the time when the gardens were in full bloom. Tulips and lilies of the valley were blooming in the flower beds near the house. Spring is beautiful, even if it suddenly gets cold. But the coldness of memories of the tragic days of February and March 2022 cannot be dulled even by beauty. Sad memories keep coming back, says Halyna. And they hurt.
The outbreak of the great war caught their family at home. The first feeling was paralyzing fear. The occupiers were shelling the city with everything they had. Bombs, rockets, mines, shells... The electricity was cut off, the heating was also cut off, and the house was freezing cold. We hid from the shelling in the basement of the house. It was a cold, damp place, not equipped for shelter. “Our neighbor found an old couch somewhere, and Bohdanchyk could sleep on it,” Halyna recalls. “My son was always hungry, asking for food. When the shelling stopped, I would run to the apartment to cook something or at least heat water. It was good that there was gas. But it was getting harder and harder to get food. An old friend of ours served in the terrorist defense. We lost contact with each other a long time ago, but at the beginning of the war he tracked us down and came to us whenever he could, bringing us bread. Volunteers with humanitarian aid made their way to the city, under fire, but not everywhere they could get... Some of them were killed... Some pre-war supplies helped out. But the worst situation was with medicines - it was almost impossible to get them in Chernihiv at that time. And I have chronic health problems, I am completely dependent on some medications.”
It is difficult for a woman to think back to those times. The worst thing she had to go through was the unknown. “The thought that my child might not have a future scared me all the time,” she sighs, “We couldn't leave the city - the Russians were besieging it. There were several opportunities to evacuate, we heard about the green corridors, but we also heard that the occupiers shot civilians when they tried to leave Chernihiv... So we spent 40 days escaping this horror in the basement. Since then, Bohdanchyk has been afraid of shelters and air raids. That's why he is now studying at an online school - we still can't switch to a stationary, “live” form of education. My son is worried that something will happen to me during the shelling of the city and he won't be there.”
We are talking, and at this time a strange “noise” suddenly comes from the other room. “Oh, our friends are here again. Mom, can I open the window?” Bohdan calls out.
Curious birds peer through the window. The boy takes out grains of wheat to feed the birds.
“The story with the pigeons started before the war,” the woman smiles, “Once they flew to our window on the fifth floor and we fed them. The birds loved us, and we loved them. When the siege of the city began, they also flew in between the explosions. My child talked to the birds. Even though we had nothing to feed them, we tried to give them at least a few crumbs of bread or oatmeal. The birds became our talisman. I had the impression that they were protecting us.
A priest I knew said that pigeons are birds that are very close to God. They are depicted on almost every icon. So I talked to them all the time, and I had the impression that we were praying together. And God heard us - our city was liberated.”
This happened in early April 2022. On the eve of the occupiers' withdrawal, the terror intensified. “If there was a ‘plan’ for the shelling before, that day it was happening every minute. For the first time in my life, I saw the walls of our house shaking. It felt as if the house had jumped in the air and fell to the ground with a crash. If it wasn't for the war, I would have thought I was just going crazy. God forbid I should experience something like that again.”
But it was even worse when the silence came. We did not know what it meant. And how long it would last. What if the planes came and started bombing the city again? The slightest sound was frightening. “We were sitting and trembling because... there was silence,” she adds bitterly.
Halyna is raising her son alone. Bohdan's father left the family before the baby was born, so the care of the child is entirely on the woman's shoulders. She also takes care of his elderly father, who has serious health problems. “When the Russians hit the Chernihiv Drama Theater last August, the missile was flying right over us. We did not have time to run to the shelter. We realized that something terrible had happened right away - from the loud explosions nearby and the sound of ambulances. Dad's deafness protected him from stress. Bohdan was very scared then. He shouted: “Mom, I'm not going outside anymore!”
The woman is worried about her son because he has had problems with his nervous system since birth. For the first year of his life, Halyna was constantly visiting doctors. The child was constantly crying and screaming. She says she sounded the alarm in time, did not believe those who said he would “outgrow it.” “I realized that something was wrong with him. The doctors said that the child's condition was the result of a difficult delivery. And that I was one of the few mothers who did not succumb to complacency but listened to my own heart. The adequate treatment prescribed in time gave positive results.”
Ms. Halyna is constantly looking for opportunities to earn money, working various jobs, but she always lacks money. Moreover, the family does not have their own home and lives in a rented one. The help from the Family to Family project was very helpful and timely. Although the woman did not dare to apply for participation for a long time. After all, many people need help, and perhaps these funds are more important to some, she reasoned. “When I received a favorable response, I could not realize that this was really happening to us. It is touching that ordinary Polish families are supporting us. The realization that there are such kind, caring people gives us strength.”
The family spends most of the money on medicines and food. Halyna says they save a certain amount for “hard times” because the future is very difficult to predict nowadays. Although they recently spent some of their savings on a blender - she has been dreaming of one for a long time, she admits.
But their biggest dream is to have their own home. “However, it is very difficult to realize it, we need a lot of money,” Halyna realizes. “And the most cherished wish is for the war to end. So that people do not die. Why should our people suffer? Just because someone decided to come to our land, brazenly claiming that it was their territory. Firing rockets, bombing peaceful Ukrainian cities... This is something so horrible that should never have happened in the twenty-first century. But it did. Unfortunately, it did...”
Finally, as she leaves us, the woman tells us about her son's new hobby, which appeared during the war: looking for and collecting various interesting stones. “He had never done this before, and then suddenly... I remember walking down the street, and a soldier comes towards us. “Mom, ask him to stop.” “Why?” - “Ask him...” Bohdan came up and gave him his stone. He said: “This is a talisman for you, I want you to stay alive.” He made something up, drew it in his imagination. For a whole year, he went around giving his stones to the military who met us on our way. Some would smile and just thank us. Some stopped to play with their son for a minute. They held them close to their hearts. And one soldier said: “Boy, I will definitely come back after our victory. I will definitely find you and give you a big hug!”