Five-year-old Varya, sitting on a low fence on the platform of the station in Taganrog, cheerfully declares to passers-by: “And my mother and I are traveling!”
People with worried faces and heavy bags fleetingly smile at the girl and rush to the Taganrog-Belgorod train.
All of them were evacuated from the DPR and LPR after increased shelling from the Ukrainian side.
Varya and her mother also left Donetsk for evacuation, but the girl does not know about it yet.
“My ex-husband and I never told our daughter that there was a war going on in her hometown, we protected her from it.
Now I am trying to create an atmosphere of travel for my daughter: I say that we are going to an unfamiliar city, to walk and learn something new, ”says RT Sveta (name changed).
She has a hiking backpack on her back - it contains everything that she managed to take with her to the evacuation.
Sveta has no friends or relatives in Russia.
And, right now, standing on the platform in front of the train, she decides whether she and her daughter will go to Belgorod, Rostov-on-Don, or stay in Taganrog.
Heard fireworks - sat on the floor
“Many parents from the LDNR that I know are trying to somehow save the psyche of their very young children, and do not tell them directly about the war, but explain everything that happens around them with the help of fairy tales,” says RT Ekaterina Sukhinina, co-founder of the foundation social programs "Dobrofond", which helps the residents of Donbass.
Ekaterina was born and raised in Donetsk.
In 2014, when the war began, she left for the Crimea with her younger brother and mother.
Now the girl lives in Moscow, but regularly travels to her homeland with her husband and five-year-old son to visit her parents and help local children.
“Once we were in Donetsk with my son, and then we heard the sounds of shelling in the distance.
When my son asked what it was, I said that there was a construction site somewhere nearby.
And so do many parents,” says the interlocutor.
- My friends live near the line of demarcation.
There was a strong explosion near their house: a window flew open from the blast wave and hot air entered the room.
And they told their four-year-old child that the Serpent Gorynych flew not far from them.
Ekaterina Sukhinina believes that children from Donbass grow up faster than their peers, and many things are easier.
“They don’t react to some kind of children’s irritants: for example, if they were pushed or a toy was dropped, they treat it condescendingly, like adults,” says Ekaterina, “It would never occur to them to brag to each other and measure who has cooler toys .
This adulthood is especially noticeable in children who have been in bomb shelters - they are like little old men.
The girl recalls that in 2018 her foundation brought a group of children 7-8 years old from Donetsk to Moscow.
When they were at the hotel and heard fireworks outside the window, they all immediately went up to the wall and sat on the floor.
“For them, a loud sound is associated primarily with shelling or a shot.
When they hear such sounds or the sound of an airplane flying, they look back at their parents to immediately understand how to act: run or fall to the ground.
These children generally try not to let their adults out of their sight so that in case of danger they can quickly be next to them, ”says the social activist.
“The projectile exploded.
Aunt was nearby
In the fall of 2014, the Popkov family from the city of Khartsyzsk tried to leave the war zone by car.
Their car ended up 500 meters from the ensuing battle between the Armed Forces of Ukraine (APU) and the forces of the DPR militia, next to the Ukrainian tank.
Four-year-old Diana then remembered him as a "boat".
Diana Popkova.
12 years old.
© Frame: RT video
The car was shot almost point-blank from a large-caliber machine gun.
All Diana's relatives who were in the car - dad, grandmother, older sister, and mother, who managed to shield the girl, died.
Diana herself was wounded in the shoulder.
She was taken to the hospital the next morning.
And after a while, the second grandmother took her from there.
Because of the injury, the girl's right arm stopped growing.
Recently, the RT project "Children of War" raised funds for an operation for Diana to ramp it up.
Diana's grandmother at the end of 2014 said that for the first time after the tragedy, the girl screamed at night: she dreamed of bad uncles, who "like in a cartoon, were frozen by her mother."
Diana, 12, says she barely remembers the day she lost her family.
“I don’t remember my parents very well.
I am fine with those people because of whom this all happened, I have no anger or hatred towards them, ”says Diana RT.
Now she is with her grandmother in her native Khartsyzsk.
Over the years, the girl has become accustomed to the war and now she no longer feels such fear as before: “I feel fine now, during the war.
It’s not so scary anymore, as it was then - I’m used to it.
But I want it to be over as soon as possible.
I don't want anyone else to get hurt in the war."
14-year-old Liza Babash, eight years after being injured, cannot calmly remember and talk about what happened to her in August 2014.
The girl was born and raised in the village of Styla, where ethnic Greeks live.
For eight years, the village has been located near the line of demarcation between the forces of the militia of the DPR and the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The settlement regularly came under fire from Ukrainian forces, although the military of the DPR never stood in Styl itself.
Lisa Babash.
14 years old.
© Frame: RT video
“On August 28, 2014, my aunt and I went to the school to get in touch - then it was bad with her.
We were walking, and then they began to bomb very heavily.
A shell exploded nearby.
There was an aunt nearby, - the girl falls silent.
- I cant".
Lisa's aunt died on the spot.
The girl received multiple shrapnel wounds to the stomach, spleen, intestines, pelvis and spine.
The child survived eight difficult operations.
The rehabilitation was so difficult that even now the girl does not want to go to the hospital, although she needs to be examined.
Due to a fracture of the pelvic bone, her leg stopped growing, it is difficult for her to walk.
Lisa admits that her leg still hurts a lot.
A 14-year-old girl, along with her grandmother, has now been evacuated to Donetsk - her grandfather remained in her native Styl.
Lisa's brother went to fight in the DPR army.
“I have no hatred for people who are so ... because of whom it happened,” says Lisa.
“Of course, we all want peace so that there is no war.
So that, as before, they would run along the street, not worry about anything, not be afraid.
Peace is when it is calm, when you can walk and not think about anything and not listen constantly.
Bicycle, Lamborghini, Paris
13-year-old Yura, from Donetsk, has never met Liza, but he almost repeats her words about what peace is.
“Peace is when there is no shelling, it is always calm.
Walk wherever you want, no supervision, always fun.
War means constant desertions, it is impossible to live normally, constant shelling.
There is nothing good in this,” says the student.
Yura.
13 years old.
© Frame: RT video
Yura is a pupil of the Children's Social Center of Donetsk, where children who are left without parental care go.
The center left for evacuation to Taganrog on February 18th.
Now the children live in the Romashka sports and recreation complex on the shores of the Sea of Azov.
Almost immediately after arriving here, the children with their teachers ran to play in the sea - many of them saw it for the first time.
“When we arrived, we first ate, then went to bed, then woke up and ate again,” says nine-year-old Bogdan in detail.
“Then the children and I went to the sea, played there in the sand and collected shells.”
The boy says that he likes it here, but he would like to return home as soon as possible - in Donetsk he has scooters and a bicycle: “I can ride a bicycle with one hand, I can even put my feet on the steering wheel and ride - I learned it myself.”
Bogdan.
9 years.
© Frame: RT video
15-year-old Dima says that he has already been to the Sea of Azov in Taganrog.
Then he was three years old, and he and his mother came here to rest, and not to evacuate.
“We came with my mother.
I remember that I dug a large deep hole there, filled it with water and told my mother that this is my personal sea, ”Dima smiles from pleasant memories.
Dima.
15 years.
© Frame: RT video
Like Bohdan, he would like to return to Donetsk as soon as possible.
The boy, who is finishing the 9th grade, already knows that he will enter the Donetsk school to become an auto mechanic.
“I will enter the 21st bursa with us.
I will be a mechanic.
I already know how to repair the chassis of the car, I can change tires, tires.
I am learning to drive a car: a friend has taught me since I was 13, I am good at it.
I went to the Zhiguli - "six", - he says.
His favorite car is a Lamborghini Aventador, and if he had a million dollars, he would buy such a car.
Orange.
Sonya, 11, says she would like to fly a plane.
If she had the opportunity to go anywhere now, she would fly to Paris.
“I want to get to the Eiffel Tower.
I like Italy, France.
I started learning French on my own.
But while I'm here, I forgot some words, so I don't speak in sentences now, ”says the girl.
Sonya misses her home, but says she is lucky that she has many friends here.
Sonya.
11 years.
© Frame: RT video
“A friend is someone who can understand you, listen to you, he will never offend you and will not reproach you for your parents, family,” says a schoolgirl from Donetsk.
- The enemy is the one who composes gossip about you, lies all the time, calls names.
He hits you and distracts you often.
But personally, I didn’t have enemies in my life. ”
Director of the social center Tatyana Sorkina tells her younger pupils that they have come to the coast of the Sea of Azov to relax.
“Of course, the children ask when it will be possible to return home.
I tell them that we will rest, breathe in the healthy sea air and go.
So far, I don’t even know approximately when we can return,” the teacher says.
- All this must be experienced, but then it will be quiet, peaceful and calm.
And our children will no longer be frightened by the sound of an airplane.
When they see a plane, the younger kids don't know what it is, and the older kids get scared.
Because they remember how planes bombed us.”