Under the ground in the city of Nikolaev is a bunker, which is now a children’s ward.
Drops and medicines are applied among the dark pipes in the basement.
Here we meet the mother of two children, Oksana Suslenko, who did everything possible to brighten things up for her two sons, Nikita, four and Artyom, 11, by putting stickers and curtains on the walls.
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Image: The queue for water in Nikolaev
“No water, no food”
The two boys play with toy tanks and rocket launchers, reflecting the battle above.
Ms. Suslenko last spoke with her husband four days ago. He is one of the last fighters to stay in the shattered city of Mariupol.
She told me. “Everything is really bad. There is no water or food. Everyone is hungry and dirty, they don’t bathe, they don’t eat, they have nothing – civilians as well as military.
“Lots of dead bodies on the street – people just bury them in their backyards. I’m holding on – that’s all I can do. With everything I have – there.”
She nods to her two children.
“They are adults, they understand and see everything for themselves. Nikita, tell me who your father is?” She asks.
Image: The boys say that their father is a hero
“Hero,” says the four-year-old. His brother says the same thing.
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I’m afraid it will rise above the ground
She added: “He will be there until the very end – he said that we will fight for Mariupol and for Ukraine.”
Like the other children in the bunker, the two boys are afraid to go above the ground.
The medics do not want us to reveal the location of the place, fearing that this will make it a target.
The nearby hospital was shelled by three different countries – probably a war crime.
Article 18 of the Geneva Convention states that no hospital “may be attacked”.
This is a violation that can be investigated by the International Criminal Court, but according to Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Deinsova, 324 hospitals have been damaged since the conflict began.
Dr Olexandre Plytkin, head of the hospital, said: “It was a targeted shelling of the hospital in order to scare people and harm us as much as they could. And there were many bombed-out hospitals. They want to scare the civilians and sow panic among the people. “
Image: There has been no running water in the city for six days
Dr Plitkin said many children were injured in the conflict: “We had more than 24 children with different types of injuries, bullet wounds, shrapnel wounds, some of the children with their parents lived in occupied areas and as they left, they were followed by shooting. “
No running water for almost a week
But the people in Nikolaev still have to dare.
There has been no running water in the city for six days.
Residents are collecting water from mobile water tanks around the city, including 71-year-old Vladimir Fedorenko, who is recovering from a shrapnel wound in his leg.
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He said: “Two bombs fell in my yard, I fell to the ground, and a third fell four meters and severely injured my right leg. My dog was a few feet away from me and was dead with three shrapnel holes in it. “
In a nearby park, bloodied earth and a discarded hat are the only clues to the terror inflicted on civilians in front of the church on Friday.
Local authorities say several blasts have killed five people and injured 15.
An eyewitness, Oksana Bizina, told me: “A woman who sat on a bench next to the church died.
“You can imagine my condition when I saw her head torn off, a child without an arm, and then this man and all this, the windows were flying out of the church and all this was happening.
This city held back the Russians, but is still terrorized by artillery fire and missiles. Walking around civilians, they pray that they are not in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Orthodox Church also prays for its soldiers, for those who died and, above all, for an end to this war.
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