Eleven-year-old Andriy still remembers that morning in detail – it was the most terrible of his life. The boy woke up to loud pounding on the door and the sound of gunshots, accompanied by the door being broken down and them bursting into the house. One of the bullets passed right by his mother’s head – so close that she physically felt the air move near her ear. When the door opened, the Russian security forces could no longer be stopped. They rushed inside and began a search. The adults were ordered to lie on the ground. Threats sounded in parallel: they promised to tie them to the car’s tow bar and drag them along the road in case of disobedience. For every attempt to get up or change position they used force. The boy stood and sobbed loudly, watching what the occupiers were doing.
The armed security forces began the search and moved on to insults – they called the family “Ukrainian waiters”, openly showed contempt for their pro-Ukrainian stance, reproached them for refusing to accept Russian documents. During the search a Ukrainian flag was taken from the house. Formally it looked like “investigative actions”. In fact – like another stage of pressure on the civilian population in one of the settlements of the currently occupied part of the Kherson region.
“Several times the Russian FSB and the military police came to us. They said that we allegedly transmit geolocations of the Armed Forces, that we donate, that we hide weapons. Although none of that was true. During one of the searches they found a Ukrainian flag that the child had hidden. They took it out and trampled it. They said: ‘Why don’t you have Russian documents yet? You will be punished for this. If next time we come and the documents are not ready – we’ll take you to “the pit”’”,
says Andriy’s mother – Halyna (the child’s and mother’s names have been changed for security reasons, – MOST).
Their village was occupied in the first days of the full-scale invasion. Already by the afternoon of February 24, 2022 countless columns of Russian military equipment moved along the main roads of the left-bank Kherson region, heading toward Mykolaiv, Kryvyi Rih and Melitopol.
Only a few months ago the woman left the occupation with her son, having lived under Russian pressure for more than four years. She describes those years as living in constant fear. According to her, people grew accustomed not to everyday life, but to military hardware, armed Russian soldiers and the constant expectation of danger.
In the village where she lived, Russian servicemen settled in abandoned houses among the civilian population. They no longer wear military uniforms, travel in civilian cars and disguise themselves as locals.
Halyna recalls that over the years of occupation the main feeling among the locals became total fear, which paralyzed any freedom of choice or speech.
“You cannot call this life at all. It was a horror, not life. At first it was very hard to get used to the military hardware, to the soldiers, to all of it. People would only hear an explosion – they immediately ran to the cellars. Even when equipment simply stopped and they asked people something – the way or something else – people became frightened and fled. There is no free speech. People are afraid to say anything, although many believe in Ukraine and wait for it to return”,
the woman shares.
The family felt especially strong pressure because of their refusal to send their child to a Russian school. Andriy’s parents were called to the so-called “court”, where they were accused of failing to properly raise the child. According to the mother, they were threatened with fines and even loss of parental rights.
At school children were forced to take part in ceremonies with the Russian flag and anthem, were given “talks about important things” and lessons filled with Russian propaganda. In the senior classes children are taught to disassemble assault rifles.
Andriy, according to Halyna, tried to stay silent and not show his views, because he already knew how that could end for the family.
The school enforced tightened control measures: armed guards, backpack checks and metal detectors. Parents are effectively not allowed inside.
“In court they told me: ‘We give you a month. If you do not register the child – there will be a fine, and then loss of parental rights’. So we had to register the child for schooling. At school every Monday the students are forced to raise the Russian flag and sing the anthem. My son did not sing, but they told him: ‘We will make you stand in front of the whole school – you will sing’. The whole school is draped with flags and photos of Putin. The children are silent not because they agree. They are just afraid. But I heard there was an incident where children tore down the Russian flag in a classroom. However, they were immediately threatened with the police and trouble for their parents”,
describes Andriy’s mother about school life.
She also added that boys from schools in the surrounding settlements were taken en masse to medical examinations, and those deemed unfit for service were effectively not acknowledged.
Separately, Halyna spoke about pressure related to re-registering property according to Russian rules. According to her, the occupation authorities set deadlines by which people must re-register housing and land. Houses whose owners left or did not manage to register documents are threatened to be declared “ownerless” and handed over for settlement by Russian workers.
At the same time, people physically cannot complete these procedures because of huge queues and a shortage of staff in the so-called MFCs.
“They told us that if we do not re-register the houses according to their rules – they will take them. They say they will settle their workers there. The queues are huge, there are not enough people, they even call students to work in the MFCs because they simply cannot physically process all of it in time”,
the woman says.
The family could not leave earlier due to lack of money and illness of relatives. Eventually Halyna, together with Andriy, was evacuated with the help of the organization Save Ukraine. The journey took about five days.
She says that the organization accompanied her at all stages of the route, explained how to go through filtration and what to say at interrogations.
One of the most stressful stages of departure is phone checks. According to the woman, one should prepare for them in advance, understanding that the contents of the device may become the subject of additional questions from the security forces.
“My son dreamed of leaving. He constantly asked: ‘Mom, when will we leave here?’”,
Halyna recalls.
After arriving in territory under Ukrainian control the woman says that for the first time in a long while she felt calm. She and her son were placed in temporary housing, provided with food, belongings and psychological support.
“Here there is no longer that feeling that every car near the yard means they have come to us again. The condition I arrived in was terrible. But we were very well received. I did not even expect that. There are psychologists, there is help, food, housing – everything is available”,
she says.
Despite what they experienced, Halyna asks to tell people in the occupied territories the main thing: it is possible to leave.
She emphasizes that many are afraid to leave the occupation because of lack of money or not knowing what to do next. But she says that after leaving families are not left alone with their problems: “Don’t be afraid and leave — that is the main thing I want to say. We were also afraid that we would be left without money and without understanding what to do tomorrow. But it turned out that in Ukraine they were waiting for us and supported us. Here you are not alone, people will help you get back on your feet and start everything anew”