JUST A REGULAR FAMILY

Svetlan, Miron and their 6 children come from Donbass. They have spent their entire life in Gorlovka, which in 2014 became part of the Donetsk People’s Republick. I met them in the summer of 2014 in the refugee center in Bakhmut, which at that time was the first major city close to the frontline on the Ukrainian side.They lived there in 8 people in two rooms…They decided to leave their home because of the dangerous situation in the city, but the most important reason was that they felt more Ukrainians and they were experienced repression from people with different views.They start peacefull and quiet life there; girls went to school, found work and Anna gave birth to a child. Unfortunately, war knocked on their door again. They had to leave behind everything they had built over the past few years. They decided to flee when Russian rockets fell on a neighboring block and the windows in their apartment fell out. Ania with son Mattiew failed to leave the territories that are under Russian occupation. There are no green corridors or a safe road from where they are and the way throught Russia and Bealorus its too dangerous.In the meantime, two years ago her husband Igor died of a heart attack on his way home from work. From Bakhmut they fled to Lviv, where they spent a month and a half living in a school that was a temporary shelter for internal refugees.Unfortunately, they also experienced unpleasantness there from the employees of the facility, just because they are from Donbass, speaks Russian, and “this war is because of people like them”.Now they joined their two children who had previously moved to Kiev.They managed to rent an apartment. However, due to the war, housing prices went up and they had to move to nearby Irpin. Now they are slowly starting to build everything from scratch.