Karina had just set foot in her house, Where was your 12 year old son?when Russian missiles began raining down on his garden, leaving huge craters where his apple trees were seconds earlier.
When she regained consciousness after being hurled down the hallway by missiles, she started screaming for her son.
“I called him, but he didn’t answer me”, the 41-year-old woman told AFP two days later, amid the rubble of her home.
“I told myself that if my son died, I would kill myself. It was the first thing on my mind. How could I live without my son?”
brutal bombing
Karina’s family survived the brutal bombing occurred in April, even though it partially destroyed his house.
Despite this, she does not want to leave Konstantinovka, her hometown, in the war-torn Donetsk region (east).
Many families have been faced with the dilemma of whether to stay or leave with children living near the front lines in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in February last year.
The unpredictability of the war complicates the decision: Karina’s son survived, but other children did not suffer the same fate, hit by artillery fire, even hundreds of kilometers from the fighting.
According to the authorities, 480 children died and more than 1,400 were injured since the beginning of the conflict.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on all residents of the Donetsk region to evacuate children in July. Subsequently, the local authorities also ordered the evacuation of minors in various frontline locations.
Some families resist, citing financial problems or attachment to their homes. Others refuse mandatory evacuation orders.
Instead, 23-year-old Veronika Sorokina fled with her 2-year-old son when the Russians entered their village in the Lugansk region (east) in March 2022.
“It wasn’t a difficult decision. It took three minutes. We feared for our son,” the woman said, adding that she took some papers and some items with sentimental value, such as her wedding dress.
Her husband, Vitali, 48, knew a route through the countryside that he knew the Russians would not find.
“When we left the village, we covered our son’s mouth so he wouldn’t scream,” Veronika said through tears.
Natalia Maksimenko, 21 years old, I wanted to wait a bit before leaving of Bakhmut, the epicenter of the fighting for months.
But it was a bombing in the building across the street that prompted her to leave. with her 19 year old husband, their 6 month old baby and her cat.
“We have a child (…) If he dies, I would go crazy. That’s why I decided to leave,” she explains with her son on her lap.
A day after he fled his two-bedroom apartment, the building came under artillery fire.
Now they live in one room in the capitalkyiv, and share the bathroom and kitchen with other people.
For Arina Satovska, who runs a center in Kyiv that welcomes families with children, the decision to leave is sometimes complicated because the ways out are sometimes more dangerous.
Moreover, Leaving is only the first step in leaving the war behind.
“We had kids who, after two weeks here, still didn’t want to go out and play for fear of air raid warnings and bombings,” Satovska said.
Veronika, who fled from Lugansk with her husbandshe said her son still reacts to loud noises.
“He runs into my arms, screams and trembles (…). He is afraid.”
Standing in front of what’s left of her home in Kostiantinivka, Karina explained that while she’s not ready to leave her village, she would advise a friend in the same situation to do so.
“I can’t imagine living in a place I don’t know.”
AFP agency
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.