Veronika Fled Mariupol

The Guardian shares Veronika’s story:

The months before the war were the best of my life. I was in my second year at university and one of the best students on the course. But the thing that brought my life true meaning was playing ice hockey. It was what I woke for every morning. On 23 February our coach told me of plans to set up a women’s hockey team to try and reach the professional league. I went to bed so happy, looking forward to the next day.

The next morning when I woke at 5.30am I didn’t immediately understand that it was explosions, and not my alarm clock, that had woken me up. My bed was shaking from the shockwaves.

It continues below.

My mum and I came out of our bedrooms, barely understanding what was happening. For the first few hours we sat together, waiting for it all to finish, but the bombing just got worse. So we packed a suitcase and ran to my grandparents’ basement.

As soon as I got into the basement I realised my life as I had known it was over. Hockey, work, friends, a man with whom I was very much in love, all of these things finished that day. That is probably why I do not feel anything any more: no fear, no pain, no anger, no desire to live. I feel like I died at 5.30am on 24 February.