Stories From The War: Sophia
As you know, the war is going on in Ukraine. The main fighting has not yet reached my region, so we are in the rear. Our main task is to receive refugees, form territorial defense units and provide all possible assistance to the army.
Because I work for a chemical company, I was involved in the protection of strategically important facilities, namely chemical plants.
We have an air alarm several times a day. In this case, we immediately go down to the nearest shelter. Despite all the bad things, it allows you to meet new people.
Yesterday, when we were once again hiding in a shelter, I noticed a charming white-haired girl. Her name is Sophia. She is 7 years old. She attracted my attention by the fact that when other children spoke to her, she answered very scared, often blinked her eyes during the conversation, constantly trying to press her back against the wall.
I called several children and turned on the audio story on the phone. So I wanted to entertain them. I succeeded.
Sofia's parents said that they had recently arrived from Kyiv. They had to flee the city immediately when, during another shelling by Russian troops, the shell hit a nearby apartment building. At that time, all the windows in their house were broken.
During the war there was no place to order new windows. It became very cold in the apartment. But this was not the main reason for the escape. The main reason is fear, they could no longer live in fear.
It was because of the fear of loud explosions that Sofia began to blink often. When she was at home, she had to endure several shellings. She told me that the explosions were so strong that the ground shook.
Sophia and her parents had to urgently pack up and run away. They left Kyiv in their own car. Unfortunately, they came under fire again. Unfortunately, they were not injured, all the shells hit the nearest house.
Breaking out of Kyiv was like breaking out of hell for them. Then there was the long road to the west. Sometimes military planes flew over them, it caused them to panic, they tried to stop somewhere to hide.
Sofia went to school until the second grade. Now she will not be able to return to her school, even if the war is over. Her school was badly damaged by shelling. She told me about her friendly class, about friends-neighbors with whom she will probably never meet again. But the child does not regret it, she is happy to have escaped.
At the farewell, I asked who Sofia dreams of becoming when she grows up. She dreams of becoming an invincible soldier in the Ukrainian army :)
... I don't think Sofia should become a soldier. Better would be to better the world, to make soldiers unnecessary.
Haha, children's dreams. All children dream of being heroes: astronauts, firefighters, rescuers. But when they become adults, they somehow become financiers and lawyers.
Unfortunately, humanity has been at war for its entire history. I thought humanity had evolved to a higher level. But I was wrong.
Thank you for sharing. I hope your area stays free of bombing. Sophias story is very touching, children are so vulnerable. It´s always good to keep children drawing through these times. It´s a good way to have them express. Maybe there is a way to have them draw when you are all underground in shelter. In HIve I publish a daily easy, fun exercise that the children I work with love to do, turning a scribble into a drawing. One looks at the scribble and see what you can see... just an idea, here is a link. https://hive.blog/@romanie/posts. Take care!
This is a very cool project! Such amazing creatures come out of scribbles.
Next time I will try to ask the children to draw something. I think they will be interested. Thanks for the idea.
I´m happy to hear you might think that is a good Idea. I´d love to hear how they might receive this initiative. I´d love to see the art they did also! :-) Keep safe!
Sophia's story is very sad; that she can't go back to school, see her friends or return to her hometown is very tragic. How much damage are we doing to humanity by exposing children to war? Do not abandon these children, God will not abandon you.
Fortunately, Sophia escaped the war with her parents. We just sometimes meet in the same bomb shelter. I hope she will soon get used to the silence and the lack of shots, she will make new friends. Now more and more such frightened children come to us. I believe that everything will be fine.
I can't wait for the day when the whole world will see that old criminal in Kremlin trialed for aggression, crimes against humanity and war crimes. That should be his legacy, that is how he should appear in history books!
Unfortunately, I am confident that he will be able to avoid responsibility. However, he will definitely go down in history as the next Hitler.
If people with authority and influence in Russia could muster the conscience and will, they'd be able to depose the old man and hand him over to Ukrainian authorities. I can understand the skepticism, but at the same time I don't see that as entirely unrealistic possibility. And frankly, I think this time around Putin hasn't got a way out of the mess he'd made with all his Soviet, criminal and chauvinistic way of thinking - he cannot win the war, and he cannot undo what's already been done in Ukraine. Ukrainians won't forget, and the grim scenes from that war are there to stay in people's memory.
I agree with you. Ukrainians will never forget what he did. So many people died, so many children died. Only two weeks ago, we drove the children to school and hurried to work. Then the war began, for no apparent reason. It is simply impossible to forget, especially for those who have lost loved ones.
Hello ol1leh, it bothers me to hear the words kids and war in the same sentence. Unfortunately, in the world we live in, these two words often come together😔
I wish you a lot of patience in these difficult days.
Thank you for the support of our people. Unfortunately, many women and children remained in cities such as Kharkiv, Mariupol, and Irpin, which are under constant fire. The Ukrainian government is unable to evacuate them. Therefore, there will be even more victims. We are praying that this will end soon.
@o1eh What a sad story, the least guilty of this problem are the children, what memories they are collecting and living, they are so sweet that they still dream, my prayers are with so many people suffering, I ask for peace for them that they can sleep peacefully and that they continue to find friends who help their needs and listen to their stories that get words of comfort and a simple hug, greetings and blessings.
Thank you very much. Adults are to blame for everything, but children suffer. It was the adults who started this war, and in 10 days of the war 32 children were killed and dozens wounded. So far, this is not the end.
Greetings @o1eh I really wish I could upvote your post more than just once. I am terribly sorry to hear that you, your family and all Ukrainians really have to go through all this. It sounds like you are as safe as anyone in Ukraine can now be. I really hope that the war will never reach you out there in the west of your country and it will end soon.
I haven’t experienced anything like this. When I was in Israel for work attending an annual travel market there was an alarm that went off and everybody was meant to go downstairs in a shelter. Though there was no war at the time and people were not really bothered. So I actually never even went in a shelter. I admire you for trying to entertain the kids and make it all a bit better for them. Be strong and take good care of yourself too.
Yes, we are still lucky here. There are sometimes shellings in the west of Ukraine, so we do not ignore the air alarm, but it cannot be compared to what Ukrainians are experiencing in the east, north and south of our country.
It seems that the war is dragging on, so we do not know what to expect in the future.
You are all very lucky that you are not injured, I hope it is over soon and Sofia and you could go back home in peace, god bless you
Thank you, every word of support is invaluable to us.
I'm sorry, my friend @o1eh, that this aggression is happening in your country today. I can understand that pain in people and sadness in children because I was also 9 years old when the war started in my country. The sudden attack on my town lasted 7 days of shelling and I found myself alone in a shelter without parents. The same enemy was much stronger and well-armed and we without the army and a couple of rifles, but we also had a big heart for our homeland and we managed to defend ourselves.
I hope that your destiny will be the same, that you will be able to defend your homeland.
✌👀
Ever since our war in eastern Ukraine began in 2014, the example of the Croatian army has always been heard on television. I am sure our government has taken the best from this example.
I can't imagine how you could be in a shelter without your parents. Apparently it hardened you for life.
So far, our army is defending itself effectively, but we understand what a huge military machine is fighting against us. Therefore, we are afraid to make any optimistic forecasts.
Thank you very much for your support!
It has definitely hardened me for the rest of my life because you realize that every problem I have today is not so big as opposed to someone taking away your freedom.
I see that Croatian military volunteers went to fight for Ukraine a few days ago, some of them were in 2014.
Last night I saw on the news that our innovators will send catapults for Moloti cocktails, it is unrelated to the Croatian government that sends other weapons and ammunition.
I know how hard it is to fight such a military force, but every honor to your people, everyone stood in defense, women, students, athletes, old and young.
It is unfortunate and for every conviction that they do not want to create a safe corridor for civilians so that they can at least leave their homes safely.
In our war, they built this so-called safe corridor, but they took some civilians to be shot and some to concentration camps, horror.
I see that a big attack is being prepared on Kyiv and Odessa, you need to withstand those attacks because their power is weakening as the days go, because they have a problem with logistics that need to deliver food, fuel, supplies ... etc.
They miscalculated a bit, they occupied large territories and they thought they would solve it quickly. And I see that they have sent a lot of conscripts who are not very ready to fight while you are defending yourself from the heart, and that is incomparable.
A lot of humanitarian aid (food, medicine, etc.) and military aid has already gone and is sent every day, but the problem is to create corridors to get it where it is needed, I guess your logistics is working on it.
Slava Ukrajini! ✌
Many volunteers do come to us, including Croats. I did not expect our international legion to be so large.
With the humanitarian corridors, our situation is similar to yours. Russia declares a ceasefire and then shoots evacuees. Yesterday we managed to evacuate from the city of Sumy, but the reason why the fire regime was very cynical. The Russians need to regroup their troops. Six more closed corridors have been announced today. Let's see.
The Russians are indeed preparing an attack on Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Sumy. But this preparation has already dragged on, in part because our army is striking, especially on supply belts. Despite this, the attack on Kyiv and other cities will definitely be. Will our defenders stand up? I believe so.
Humanitarian cargoes from Europe and Ukraine are delivered to all necessary cities, except those that are blocked. For example, nothing can be delivered to Mariupol, as well as Irpin and Bucha, near Kyiv. There is a real humanitarian catastrophe.
Our weakest place is the sky. But even in the sky, the Russians do not have full control, as evidenced by the number of downed planes and helicopters.
Glory to heroes!
Touching story. Hopefully this war will end soon and there will be no more fear. 😢
We hope so too, but it looks like it will take a long time.