South Ukraine - IDP family from Kherson in Posad-Pokrovske, Kherson region.  

Photo Caption:

Four of Nataliia and Vitaly's children: Violeta, 8 months, Viktor, 15 years old, Vitalina, 11 years old, Mykyta, 3 years old. In December 2023, the family was displaced from the outskirts of the city of Kherson to the village of Posad-Pokrovske in the North of Kherson region.

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Nataliia, 38 years old, and Vitaliy, 42 years old, used to live in the outskirts of the city of Kherson. They have 6 children, age ranging from 8 months to 15 years old. In December, they managed to leave Kherson and found shelter in the village of Posad Prokovske, in the North of Kherson Oblast.

The village, formerly located in the grey zone, was largely oblirated by months of bombings. Nearly every building in Posad-Pokrovske was damaged; the school and the kindergarten lie in ruins.
Yet despite the widespread destruction, some villagers and families are returning or seeking shelter there, like Nataliia and Vitaliy.

“Vitaliy is from Kherson and I'm from the left bank. But we've been living together for 16 years and all that time we lived in Kherson.”, Nataliia explained.

“We did a little business of our own. Kids went to school and after school they had a drawing class every day. I really liked to do needlework. I made rubber bands and hairpins. I also sold them. We kept hens, ducks and turkeys. But then the war came and turned everything upside down.”

Despite dire conditions of life, the family was not able to leave Kherson before 23 December 2023. “When the full-scale invasion started, we literally went to live in the basement. We had a big garage under the house. We moved the sofas, the refrigerator, the stove. Vitaliy installed a stove and that's how we lived for a year and a half.”, Nataliia shared.

“There was no way to leave earlier. I was pregnant with Violetta, and we didn't dare to go anywhere. So that nothing would happen when we moved. Then the baby was small and there was no way. Thank God no one was hurt.”, Nataliia explained.

Eventually, the family left in December 2023. “We were under fire, around our house, everything was under shelling. There was not one day without hostilities. We started looking hard for a place to live. That's how we ended up here. A woman wrote to us that they agreed to let us in. So we took the kids and ran away. We took the animals and left. We couldn't leave them. Because that would be a betrayal on our part. We got a very nice welcome here.”, Nataliia explained.

“When we came to this house, there wasn't a single window. The ceiling was falling in. The whole house was broken. My husband and the volunteers did the roof. He managed the rest by himself.”, Nataliia shared.

“I'm very worried about having to leave again. I'm very worried about having to go through that again. And we'll do everything we possibly can to keep the children safe. We try to protect them. It's not easy psychologically. But we talk to them all the time. The kids tell us what's worrying them. We've talked about everything. What the dangers are and how to stay safe. We have a very close relationship. », Nataliia said.

Natalia and her husband try to stay positive: « Everything must be good. We want to raise children to be very good people. To appreciate every day with faith in the future. We want the best for our children. And God will help us with that. », Nataliia shared.

In Posad-Prokovske, the family live on IDP allowance and humanitarian assistance. Their biggest needs today are food and hygiene items.