We will talk about people who unexpectedly ended up in our region not because of a trip, but because of the war. War radically changed the fate of many thousands of our Ukrainians but didn't broke!!! Because Ukrainians were and remain strong in spirit, strong in their ancestral roots, profound wisdom, unsurpassed kindness. And when someone nearby is in trouble, they are immediately ready to lend a shoulder, lend a hand, protect and help. That is why UKRAINIANS ARE AN INCONQUERABLE FORCE! 

Nadiya Oleksandrivna Ostapchuk (on the left at the photo) and Olena Altunina (on the right at the photo). Both are daughters. Nadiya Oleksandrivna, although originally from Vinnytsia, from the Khmilnytskyi district, has lived in Donetsk almost all her life, more than 47 years. She and her husband worked there, raised a son and a daughter, waited for grandchildren and great-grandchildren, they were happy. War destroyed their world gradually, since 2014 it took away what they were used to and those they loved.

- Everything started back then: planes, shooting, and I say to my own - we must gather for the little Motherland. Everyone got ready to go, and then the daughter-in-law came home from work and said that the men were being taken off the train and taken to the DNR. The daughter-in-law has only one brother left, her parents are dead. So she was afraid to go. And her husband, my son, stayed with her. They hid somewhere in the basements, suffered terribly, it was impossible to leave. And my son-in-law also stayed, and my daughter went with us to Shostka, Sumy region. They stayed there for 3 months. And I am drawn to Batkivshchyna, to Vinnytsia, by my sister in Kumanivtsy, Khmilnytskyi district. They came and lived with their sisters. Visiting is always good. But I was very homesick. And the pressure was rising all the time, because he is hypertensive, and the "ambulance" will not reach the village until now. So they decided to find an apartment in Khmelnyk. She was found with her husband, her daughter was with us, and then she went back to Shostka, because her husband is there, his work is there. In a hurry, the son-in-law fell ill, he was diagnosed with oncology, it got worse and worse, and he died in 2019. We drove, buried. Then my husband suddenly fell ill and went to the hospital, and we lost him too... I was left alone and my illness worsened. My granddaughter came and took me to Vugledar, Donetsk region. I was admitted to the hospital, examined, operated on, I have two stents on my heart. Then the granddaughter and her son-in-law bought an apartment in Kharkiv, repaired it. On February 23, we went to move things to a new apartment, I stayed with my great-granddaughter in Ugledar. And then on the 24th at 5 in the morning, my granddaughter calls and says there is a war... And for me to quickly collect my documents, my great-granddaughter, because a car will come and take us to the Dnipro. It took a long time to get there. On the way - planes are above us, shooting, everything is booming, it's scary, the child is screaming, but we got there. Then the son-in-law convinced him to go to Kharkiv with the hope that everything would be over in a couple of days. So they did. When they realized that it would be a long time, they decided to get to Khmelnyk. It took three days to get there. Now back in Khmelnyk, my native little Motherland, it's fine here. My granddaughter will go to school here this year, we will live - Nadiya Ostapchuk told her story of rescue.

For Olena Altunina's family, Vinnytsia, namely the city of Khmelnyk, also became a refuge. Twice. 8 years ago and now, with the beginning of a full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war.

- In 2014, when it all started here in the Donetsk region, when that Girkin came, and when it became clear that a complete mess was spreading with the so-called referendum and all other nonsense. My husband and I immediately understood - there would be no point. It felt like everything would drag on. I worked in a store. And long before the start of the war, other, non-Ukrainian sentiments were felt. For example, some locals used to come to the store and yell, "What, Lena, you're not with the people?" I answered that we live in Ukraine, isn't Transnistria small? My husband and children and I are very dedicated Ukrainians. So my husband was worried that I would suddenly be killed in the store, because then almost everyone walked around with weapons, there were thefts all around, pro-Ukrainian people were put in pits, they were tortured in basements, people disappeared, it was scary. Therefore, they decided to leave. Our children also left for Sumy. And we left first for Chervonoarmiysk, now Pokrovsk. We stayed there, then went to the Dnipro. From Dnipro to Vinnytsia. At the Western bus station, they bought a newspaper and started looking for housing ads. They found a suitable option in Khmelnyk, because my husband is a miner and has problems with his spine, so they decided that he could be treated there. For three hours we pondered over our decision whether to go or not to go to Khmelnyk. But they decided anyway. One woman met us in Khmelnyk. At first, she was wary when she found out that we are from Donetsk. And yet she sheltered, housed, treated, accepted as her own, for which we are very grateful to her. Then I went to the employment center and found a job. This is how we lived in Khmelnyk for three and a half years. And still, I wanted to go home. The in-laws stayed there. The matchmaker suffered from oncology and the matchmaker. And the children, the daughter-in-law with her son and child, had to return to Donetsk earlier. Later, we also decided, because we believed that everything was shaking. In addition, the daughter-in-law was pregnant with the second child. Yes, in 2018 we went to Kramatorsk, a pro-Ukrainian territory at that time. It is 60 km from Donetsk. And the children stayed in Khartsyzka. At first, we traveled here and there, helped the children, buried my father, took my old mother with us. In 2019, when the DPR closed all the checkpoints and it was no longer possible to get to Khartsyzk, only because of the rush, then I stopped going to see my children and grandchildren. My son came this way several times, it took almost a day and a half to get there. Something bad was happening. We felt this, because when you live closer to the borders with the DPR, everything is completely different. And when they hit the airfield, we didn't even have fear, because we survived this fear well back in the fourteenth. Somehow we got used to explosions, shooting, shooting down planes over our heads. They thought that everything would pass this time. Moreover, four months before February, they bought a new apartment in Kramatorsk, just to live and be happy. But they did not know that it would be so cruel. Before, there was just chaos, and from February 24, a full-scale war came. We lasted a month. But after the house next to us was bombed, when the nearby towns of Izyum, Volnovakha, and the nearest villages were razed to the ground, when we learned about Bucha, Irpin, Gostomel, we decided to leave. And on March 30, they returned back to Khmelnyk. Now, thanks to the good people of Khmelnytskyi, my local friends Luba, Angela, Lilia, many friends already, all the people of Vinnytsia, we are here," Olena Altunina shared her pain.

Both women turned to the Center for Humanitarian Aid of our Charitable Foundation "Rebirth Energy" in Khmelnyk and received help. It is effective, targeted and guaranteed to everyone who needs it.

The author of the photo is Snizhana Snigur, a volunteer of the Center for Humanitarian Aid of the Charitable Foundation "Rebirth Energy" in Khmelnyk.