Natasha fled Kharkiv with her son Ivan immediately after the first bombs fell. They arrived in Morshyn, western Ukraine, three days after the Russian invasion.
“By the time we left Kholodna Hora, it was already under fire," Natasha tells us.
"At the same time, people were quietly walking to buy some bread. I mean, a lot of people still hope that everything is going to be okay, I called the taxi. The taxi driver said that he took his family out of the town, and he continued working. I asked: 'Why do you not leave?' He said, 'Who, if not us?'”
“I realized that wars do not end quickly. So, I have accepted my company’s offer to relocate, and I have come here by bus,” Natasha states, adding that they crossed many checkpoints and passport controls on the way.
“It breaks my heart to realise how many of my friends are staying there.”
Natasha and Ivan got to Lviv in western Ukraine and began looking for a place to stay. Finally, they found a place in an old sanatorium in Morshyn.
This building was recently re-opened for people who are fleeing the war. Natasha needs to carefully consider her next moves, noting, "I am not going anywhere right now. Only if the bombs will fall, I would leave."
Although her son Ivan is highly adaptable, Natasha is concerned about him. “He is fine, but I think he is traumatized. In any case, it could reveal later on,” she concludes.