“I Asked Them to Take My Brother to Safety”: Nastia’s Story from Pokrovsk, Donetsk Region
Lidiia Stepanivna lives near Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region with her two great-grandchildren. The 72-year-old woman is their legal guardian. Nastia and Maksym grew up without a father, and their biological mother was deprived of parental rights. Russia’s full-scale invasion became a new ordeal for the family. In the spring of 2022, the children left for the western part of Ukraine with their aunt, but soon returned.
They live under constant air raids, afraid to go outside, and frightened by every explosion.
“You can’t get used to living with that,” says great-grandmother Lidiia.
Still, she refuses to evacuate, and the great-grandchildren want to stay by her side.
As of March 2023, almost 45,000 children remained in the government-controlled part of the Donetsk region. Before the full-scale war, 289,000 children lived there.