In the first part of Nadiia Honcharenko’s series of features about her life as a Ukrainian refugee, published last week, she spoke of the horrifying moments she realised war had descended upon her country.
Today, she gives a poignant insight into the first few days of the conflict and what it meant for her and her family.
Within hours of the first bombs falling on her city, 22-year-old Nadiia and her closest loved ones fled their family home to a one-bedroomed apartment that belonged to her grandmother.
There, eight adults, three children and two cats would shelter for more than a month as Russian forces occupied the neighbourhoods around them.
Read more: The terrifying moment Nadiia realised war had broken out
“The first day of war seemed endless,” Nadiia says, describing how the TV in their makeshift basement shelter broadcasted bombs falling on the country’s most prominent cities as they listened to shots fired on the streets outside their window.
“The news talked a lot about Kyiv, yet nothing about our city of Melitipol.
“It felt like we were surrounded by chaos and despite my training as a journalist, I didn’t know what information to believe.”
As the first night in their temporary home turned to morning, those sheltering there realised food supplies would not last.
Nadiia Honcharenko, 22. Picture: Sarah Caldecott
“We didn’t take a large supply and there were a lot of us gathered in that one room,” she said.
“Neighbours brought us vegetables and from them, we learned that the whole of our city was likely to be occupied by Russians.
“We heard of a shoot out that took place close to our apartment and that Russians had fired at the city’s children’s hospital, at the building belonging to our security service and even at the local pizzeria.”
Desperate to find information about the war raging outside of their front door, the family tuned into Russian media channels and discovered that troops had declared the successful “liberation” of Melitipol.
“It was then we realised we were occupied and that our lives would change suddenly in ways that we could never have imagined.”
Read more: The Ukrainian sisters who have settled in Darlington
The next weeks passed in darkness as looting began in the grey, cold and occupied Melitipol.
“Stores, pharmacies, kiosks and food warehouses were robbed.
“Where one person robbed because of poverty, another robbed because of hopelessness and someone else because of impunity.”
People quickly ran out of food and hygiene products and children became hungry and the city’s bedridden elderly struggled to find medication.
“There was complete mess and anarchy in our city and it was extremely unsafe to move around the streets.
“But we had to leave the flat as we completely ran out of food.”
Nadiia is writing from her adopted home in Darlington, where she has been living with Durham University professor Nicole Westmarland since May.
“Since arriving, many people have asked me about my country, the war, my personal history,” she says.
“It is only in the moments where I can share my story and tell the world about the war that I feel useful.”
Check back next week for the third part in the series.
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