My mother is still in Mariupol. There is still no heating there, and it’s already November. There is no gas either, but the new government has installed windows, the cheapest ones. The city is in ruin. She calls us and cries, “I will never see you again.”
My mother is still in Mariupol. There is still no heating there, and it’s already November. There is no gas either, but the new government has installed windows, the cheapest ones. The city is in ruin. She calls us and cries, “I will never see you again.” We barely managed to get her the internet, now at least we can call each other.
They give out rations, you have to stand in line for free bread. Prices have risen a lot. One acquaintance got a job as an expeditor, and when he looks at the invoices, he sees that the prices rise every week. There are shortages of fuel, and water is also a problem. But it’s true that my mother now receives two pensions: Ukrainian and Russian.
Until October, my mother cooked on a fire, but recently my brother bought a gas bottle. The neighbors still cook on the street, I don’t know how they will spend the winter.
My mother had suffered four strokes, and will not be able to get to us herself. And it is unclear whether they will let me into Mariupol, given my pro-Ukrainian Facebook profile.
I still wake up at night in terror
Everyone with whom we were hiding in the basement scattered. My best friend went to Israel with her parents, and another friend in Kyiv with her family — they spend half a day every day without electricity. One family first moved to Budapest, then to Slovakia. Other friends left for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Some remained in Mariupol: our chef, for example. At first, he went to the Crimea, but the work there is only seasonal, and the prices are crazy. And he returned to Mariupol. He admitted he had realized that things are bad, but to such an extent... It is a ghost town, if you see one whole house, you are surprised because you walk through the ruins all day. Their house got under attack, there is a hole in the ceiling. Fortunately, the neighbors gave this guy the keys to their apartment in another apartment block.