“On 24 February 2022, my husband received a call from work and was put on alert. They ordered him to come with an emergency suitcase. He supposed it was a training exercise. And then my husband returned only a day later. We saw on TV how Kyiv was bombed. It was like a horrible dream,” says Oksana.
“We will return home, even if the house is ruined”
Until 2022, Oksana Rusnak’s family lived in the town of Orikhiv, in the Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine. After the escalation of the war in Ukraine, the family was forced to flee. They moved to the city of Zaporizhzhia and rebuilt their lives in the empty house that became their home.
A dangerous departure
When the war escalated, shops and pharmacies in Orikhiv started to close. Oksana and her husband were increasingly unable to feed their two children, five-month-old Roman and four-year-old Ilona. They first moved to the nearby village of Novopokrovka, where Oksana’s parents lived. But on 5 March, the Government of Ukraine lost control of the town, and ten days later, the village came under heavy shelling.
“We stayed in the basement until 25 March because we did not know what to expect. Then we decided to leave. We also took my brother with us because he has vision problems,” says Oksana.
Leaving the village almost turned into a tragedy. The car was detained twice, and the family was threatened with weapons.
NRC's winterisation programme in Ukraine is co-funded by the European Commission's DG ECHO.
Until 2022, Oksana Rusnak’s family lived in the town of Orikhiv, in the Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine. After the escalation of the war in Ukraine, the family was forced to flee. They moved to the city of Zaporizhzhia and rebuilt their lives in the empty house that became their home.
A dangerous departure
When the war escalated, shops and pharmacies in Orikhiv started to close. Oksana and her husband were increasingly unable to feed their two children, five-month-old Roman and four-year-old Ilona. They first moved to the nearby village of Novopokrovka, where Oksana’s parents lived. But on 5 March, the Government of Ukraine lost control of the town, and ten days later, the village came under heavy shelling.
“We stayed in the basement until 25 March because we did not know what to expect. Then we decided to leave. We also took my brother with us because he has vision problems,” says Oksana.
Leaving the village almost turned into a tragedy. The car was detained twice, and the family was threatened with weapons.
They stopped us and pointed their guns at us
“At first, we were permitted to leave. But when we were driving in the car, they stopped us and pointed their guns at us. They wanted to shoot our car, and my mother and neighbours were shouting that there were children inside. They let us go,” Oksana recalls.
“We picked up my husband's brother and his wife on the way. At the last checkpoint, the soldiers pulled us out of the car and started interrogating the men – my brother, my husband and my husband's brother. Eventually, they let us go. We drove to Orikhiv, took some of our children's things, and went to Zaporizhzhia.”
The animals could sense an attack
Oksana’s parents stayed in the village because they could not leave their farm and animals – their piglets, cows, chickens and dogs. For the next month, they lived under constant shelling. They spent their days in a shelter, which they left only to cook and to quickly feed their animals. By this time, Novopokrovka village no longer had electricity, water or gas supplies.
Lidiya, Oksana’s mother, recalls that the animals somehow knew when an attack was imminent.
I realised that the horse was warning me about the shelling
“I used to milk a cow,” she says. “And a horse starts to beat its hoof next to me. I realised that it was warning me about the shelling. I ran to the shelter, and a second later, the roof was hit by shrapnel.”
Lidiya's brother, who has a disability and requires constant medication, also took refuge in the shelter. Due to the closed pharmacies and the ban on movement in the streets, the family had no way to get the medication.
“My brother must take his medication all the time, or he has epileptic seizures. And there was no medicine because the pharmacies were closed. One day, a military man came to our house and demanded that my brother stand up at gunpoint. But he could not! He was almost shot,” Lidiya recalls, her voice trembling.
For a whole month, the family cooked on a wood-burning stove, their only heat source. But at the end of April 2022, Oksana's parents finally decided to leave their home and move to a safe place. They took only their documents with them, and left all their animals at home. Most of them died. Lidiya's house was also destroyed in the conflict.
Two winters away from home
In Zaporizhzhia, Oksana and her children changed their place of residence several times. Eventually, together with her parents and other family members, they settled in a house that some caring people had helped them find. The owners were preparing it for sale but gave it to the family to use.
Now, nine people live under one roof. Three of them have disabilities.
"Here in Zaporizhzhia, we were first sheltered by a godfather of one of the children. Then, we lived in the apartment of some friends who were abroad for about a month. During this period, my mother and my sister came to us, and two families were squashed into a two-room apartment,” says Oksana.
“So, we rented an apartment near the dam and lived there separately with the children. And then the missile strikes began. Then we moved to my parents' private house, which they were helped to find by people who cared. That is how we started living together. We believe that it is safer in a private house.”
The windows and doors in the house were blown open
Thanks to the support of locals, the house was furnished and equipped with utensils. Nevertheless, the first winter in their new home was the most difficult for Oksana's family. The energy infrastructure was being constantly attacked, causing power outages in the house. Sometimes, the attacks occurred close to their home.
“When the energy infrastructure was hit, we hid. There were even strikes when the windows and doors in the house were blown open. We thought we had just escaped from the war at the time, but there we were again. It was scary,” says Lidiya.
Lidiya adds that the winter of 2023/24 was much easier than the previous one, partly because international humanitarian organisations were on hand to assist. For example, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) provided the family with vouchers to purchase warm clothes for the children. They also provided a heater and a boiler for the whole family.
Running from thunder
The traumatic events have left a significant mark on Oksana’s family. Even ordinary natural phenomena cause them anxiety after what they have experienced.
"One day, when it was raining and thunder started to roll, my husband, children and I ran for cover – we thought it was a bombing raid. We stayed there for about 40 minutes. Then, when we came out, we realised that there was no shelling," she says.
The war has been no less stressful for the children. Ilona, now 6, visited a psychologist for almost a year to overcome the traumatic effects of the conflict. Even now, she is afraid of loud noises. At the same time, her parents talk frankly with their children about what is happening around them.
“She saw tanks and other military equipment with her own eyes. And one time we were exposed to shelling when we were at my sister's house and didn't have time to go to the shelter,” says Oksana.
“Now, we do everything to distract the children. Whenever possible, we try to visit leisure centres and go for a walk with them.”
“We would return home, even to the ruins”
Oksana's family continues to live in their new home in Zaporizhzhia. Her parents have acquired some new animals and also do some gardening.
"Here, in the new place, we are engaged in gardening, although the land plot is much smaller than at home. We bought a dog, a goat, and some chickens. To be honest, the owners didn't even know about it,” says Lidiya, laughing.
“But we can't live without our farm, absolutely not. It is like a part of our home here, at a distance.”
The fear has never gone away. The war has brought new habits into the family's life.
"When you go to bed, you don't know whether you will wake up,” explains Oksana. “We constantly sleep with the phone on, watch the news, and carefully monitor alarms. And if we hear explosions, we go to safe places. It's terrifying. Many of our acquaintances were killed – our parents' fellow villagers.”
She adds that she is eager to return home, even if the building itself no longer exists:
“If we imagine that the war ends tomorrow, we would first return home. Even to the ruins. It is still home.”
***
In 2023, on the eve of winter, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) provided vouchers for heating equipment to 373 families in eastern Ukraine. More than 1,000 people also received vouchers for warm clothing.
NRC's winterisation programme in Ukraine is co-funded by the European Commission's DG ECHO.
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