Before the war, we lived in Brovary, Kyiv region. Like all people, we made plans and enjoyed life. A month before the start of the war, things were no longer calm in our city. For the first time, children experienced this on their own, when letters began to come to the school's e-mail periodically during that month that stated that the school territory was mined and that in a matter of minutes you had to leave the room where thousands of children were. I still remember that feeling of fear for my children, seemingly in such a safe place as a school. Later they began to mine the shopping centers of our city. But as it turned out, this was the beginning of the bloody war that Putin launched.

     In Ukraine, Timofey went to 3rd grade, Timur to 9th grade. Nazar went to kindergarten and next year should go to first grade. Our younger children are very active and interested in many hobbies.

     Timofey's hobbies: modern dance (hip - hop), drawing, football, loves to cook, dreams of becoming a famous blogger.

     Nazar's hobbies: dancing, soccer, and really liked acrobatics, his favorite cartoon character PAW Patrol.

     Timur is interested in history, politics, he reads a lot of historical literature. He is also interested in the IT sphere, he wants to become a programmer in the future. From the age of 11, he attended courses that helped him to study the field of IT. Timur was one of the best students at school in a subject such as computer science. Timur's hobby is running, we run with him to keep fit.

Svitlana Tysiachna with her family.

Before the war, my husband and I had jobs. I worked in a large Ukrainian corporation as an HR manager. I have two educational backgrounds, one of which is medical, the second is higher economics. Until 2009, I was connected with medicine and even had experience working with patients in serious condition, working in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Kyiv. But then I decided to retrain and become an HR manager and have been working in this area for 10 years.

     The husband has a higher engineering education. In Kyiv, he worked as the head of the sales department. He did not have hobbies or other interests, as he worked hard in order to feed his family and pay off a loan for an apartment.

     The morning of February 24th will be remembered for a long time. It was the worst morning of our lives. We were still sleeping, except for Timur, he woke up at 5 in the morning to do his homework, which he was given at school. He took his studies very seriously.

     A loud bang woke us up that morning, it looked like the windows were about to blow out, after a second bang and flash. Then we realized that this was the beginning of the war. At that moment, the ground fell from under my feet. I looked at my children who were sleeping in their beds and did not know how to explain to them that we need to leave our apartment, our city and save our lives. I was able to gather my strength and after 30 minutes we were with things on the street. We took the most important things, documents and got into the car. Our hands were shaking, we couldn't even talk to each other, I think we were in shock then. Driving through the city at dusk, we saw a lot of people.  One ran to the grocery store, another withdrew money from an ATM, and yet another left the city just like us.  There were long lines. There was panic, no one knew what would happen next.

     We decided to go to my husband's parents, as they live in a small village and it seemed to us that we would be safe there. At 6 am we left our city towards Kyiv. And then the worst began, we got stuck in a traffic jam. We had to actually move from one end of Kyiv to the other.  In peacetime it could take a maximum of 1.5 hours, but it took us an entire day. While we were stuck in a traffic jam, fighter jets and helicopters flew over us, sirens sounded, tanks drove past us, and there was even nowhere to hide. On the way we were joined by my niece and her husband. Our car has 5 seats, but then there were seven of us, there was very little space, but there was no other way out. Finally, we approached to the exit from Kyiv and explosions began here.  As it turned out, we were passing near the city of Gostomel, where active hostilities had just begun.  Bombs simply began to be dropped on the city from the sky.

     The day passed, it was night outside, and we continued to move further towards the village (we had to pass Zhytomyr), we were driving a little faster than in Kyiv, but were still in a traffic jam. We had some fuel left, and there were many kilometers before the gas station, and we decided to take another road to shorten the route, and there we got into an even more difficult traffic jam, since there were many accidents on the road. We wanted to turn around and return to the route we had originally taken, but unfortunately we couldn’t.  The way back was blocked by other cars. We were on the road at night without water, food, and little gasoline left. Helicopters and fighter jets continued to fly in the sky. We looked into the sky and did not understand whose aircraft it was. It seemed to us that a bomb was about to be dropped on us.  We were very scared. Hundreds of cars stood in the middle of the road and no one understood what to do next, as the cars blocked each other. On one side there was a forest (without a road), and on the other, a guardrail that obstructed the road.  In order to leave, we needed to disassemble the guardrail. I looked at the frightened eyes of my children and understood that I needed to somehow get out of this difficult situation.  We needed special tools that we didn't have. I think for a short time I was able to quickly organize a team of men who undertook to disassemble the guardrail, walking along the road I was able to find the necessary tools, and an hour later, the guardrail was dismantled. All cars abruptly moved to the exit, but again we are blocked. And here I decided that I needed to take the matter into my own hands (I don’t know where I had so much strength from). A man and I stood near the exit and began to direct traffic. We untangled the traffic jam, and people began to drive out onto the free roadway. While I was directing traffic, I heard so many words of gratitude, which made me feel a little better. I was glad that somehow I could help such a large number of people to get out of this mess.

     Three hours later we were in the village. We had no strength at all.  We just really wanted to sleep. The next day reading the news, we were even more horrified. The bridge we were driving on was blown up 5 hours later. If we had lingered and stayed on the highway, we would have met with Russian soldiers who were shooting cars with civilians on the same road where we were. But thank God we managed to pass the road of death and save our lives.

     For a while we lived in the village, but the feeling of fear did not leave us. We were not far from the military camp, and we understood that this was a big risk, since Russia launched missiles at military facilities, and we understood that we were in an unsafe place, there were not even bomb shelters nearby. Having come to our senses a little, we decided to move on, more precisely toward Poland. Early in the morning we left the village and very quickly reached the border town. But there we again got stuck in a traffic jam and remained for two days  That's how long we drove to the border and passport control.  Ordinarily, it would take us up to 8 hours. It was very cold outside, and also in the car.  We could not heat the car, since there were no gas stations nearby, and our fuel was running low. I remember that everyone was very cold and wanted hot tea. Then we thought that we were safe near the border, but as it turned out not, when we were standing on the road to passport control, the Russians began to bomb the military unit, which was not far from our location. And again an explosion and thick smoke. We wanted to run, but there was nowhere to run, there was only a field around and there was not a single shelter.

     Finally we got through passport control on the Polish side. We were exhausted, but then for the first time we felt safe. For about a month, we were in a deep depression, we did not understand what to do next, it seemed that life had stopped. Two weeks later, the first gray hair appeared on my hair, these are all the consequences of stress. The children began to feel a sense of aggression, they asked to go home and were constantly crying. It was very difficult to explain to them why we couldn't go home. Having recovered a little, my husband and I began to help Ukraine.  In a foreign country and not speaking Polish, we found a charitable organization that donated medicines for our military.  We managed to deliver the medicines to Ukraine. These drugs may have saved someone's life.

     Now it’s already a little easier for us, but still the feeling of fear and the reaction to loud sounds remained.  I hope this will pass with time. But we won't be like before...