“It is getting more and more horrifying and dangerous to live in our village. For almost 1.5 years, it was relatively quiet for us, and we didn’t want to go anywhere. We thought that the war would end soon,” recalls Svitlana, who was evacuated from Malotaranivka in the Kramatorsk district, together with her children and grandchildren, by the rescuers of Save Ukraine.

Svitlana Kovaleva’s large family, like other fellow villagers, hasn’t left anywhere since the beginning of the full-scale war. Being at home is the best. But in the last month, living here has become unbearable. The city of Kramatorsk is constantly bombarded, and it reaches them as well. The dispensary, workshops, and other buildings in the village have already been destroyed. Every time the rockets fly, the only thoughts in the head are where it will land this time and what will happen next.

All summer, Svitlana and her eldest daughter Hanna were thinking about how to leave for a safer region to save their children: their minor son Nikita and young granddaughters Masha and Katya. At first time, they doubted. But the tragic shelling of the pizzeria, under the ruins of which children and a lot of young people died, firmly convinced them that it was necessary to leave. All the more so because relatives from the Dnipro offered them help.

However, the most painful issue was transport. Because it is very difficult to leave a village where there are no buses, where there is no railway, but which is constantly under fire. And finally, Svitlana saw an announcement about free evacuation from Save Ukraine.

“Sincerely thank you for helping our family! Thanks to the organization Save Ukraine. Thanks to the volunteers. God bless you!” – said Svitlana at last to our rescuers, when her whole family was already safe.

0 800 333 129 – all-Ukrainian hotline of the rescue network Save Ukraine with the support of USAID Ukraine.