Anna Shvets
Makiivka
Donetsk
How did you experience war in 2014? What do you remember from that? How old were you? How did 2014-2015 go for you?
Please tell this story in detail.
When the war started, I was 16 years old. I was scared for my life, for my relatives, for the future. I spent the whole summer in the basement of our house, there was no money, no food either. The supply of insulin (I have diabetes) stopped. I had to run around the street to get my sugar levels to fall. Then after the 10th grade of school I entered a technical college. Studies began in October. At first things were normal, but later the russian education system supplanted everything that was adequate. It was more like a mixed gibberish instead of knowledge.
"Where were you these 8 years?".
How has this time passed for you, what changed in your life since the events of 2014?
What has influenced you the most during this time?
Please write in detail.
I was in Donetsk. I graduated from college, which later became a technical school, and then entered the Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture. Didn't finish it. In 8 years, the education system has gotten completely messed up. I loved my city very much before the war, I wanted to live in the center of Donetsk and go to football matches. Everything got destroyed. Nobody rebuilt things. I recently learned that the Constitution Square was renamed to the square named after a certain "hero of russia, Marmagomed Tadzhimagomedov". It's awful, it's not for the people. And it depresses, oppresses.
The biggest effect was that the city had died. Everything seems to have fallen asleep. There was a rollback. I especially noticed this in medicine — the lack of insulin and normal medications.
What was February 24, 2022 for you like?
Did you believe that a full-scale offensive would begin?Where are you now? What do you do?
What do you think about your future now?
I couldn't believe it when my friend called. I didn't want to believe it, until I saw the photos.
I cried then because of my powerlessness.
And it is still so.
At the moment I am in Donetsk. There is no financial opportunity to leave yet.
I see the future very vaguely. I want to believe in the best. But I can’t.
I do not see any development in Donetsk, although I love it very much.
I would like to pay more attention to art, but because of shelling it is not possible.