Anna and Tanya have lived through war. Displacement. The loss of their mother. And together with their grandparents, they have struggled to build a life in a foreign part of Ukraine.
21 February was Tanya’s 14th birthday. She had baked a cake with her little sister. And she tried to muster excitement.
“We try to celebrate our birthdays, even if it’s very modest,” she explains shyly.
But it is difficult. Because Tanya’s family is not as it should be. Her mother is not there to present the cake.
Remembers everything about her mother
“I remember everything about my mother. She was the sweetest person, and everyone in the family loved her. I have inherited everything from her, from her appearance to her hobbies,” Tanya says.
Their mother was sick when Russia launched the full-scale invasion in Ukraine. In the confusion and chaos that followed she didn’t get the treatment she needed – treatment that could have saved her life according to Anna and Tanya’s grandparents.
Her little sister, Anna, was less than a year old when their mother died. Despite the big age difference, the two sisters have a strong bond.
“I have taken care of her ever since she was a baby. I’m the one who cooked porridge for her, bathed her and dressed her. I’ve helped her with everything, and she follows me everywhere,” says Tanya.
One morning four years ago
24 February it is four years since Russia invaded Ukraine. Families have fled from everything they have ever known. Children have lost their parents – parents have lost their children. Not to mention all the everyday deprivations: the lack of running water in the taps, light in the lamps, heat in the radiators. Entire school years spent in underground shelters. Sleepless nights as bombs fall.
Tanya has been through it all. She clearly remembers the day four years ago when the whole world changed:
“On 24 February 2022 I woke up and thought I was going to school, but no adults came to my room, so I fell asleep again. When I woke up again, my grandmother said: The war has begun.”
The family lived in Kherson, which was one of the first regions Russia attacked.
“It quickly became clear to us that we had no time to sell or hide anything, because the city was full of armed groups. So we left everything – the land, the farm, the house,” says Tanya’s grandmother, Natalia.
The girls had just lost their mother. But their grandmother had to leave them with a group of volunteers who could evacuate them.
“It was very difficult. But in a situation like that you don’t think about yourself – only about saving the children,” she recalls.
Stopped by Russian soldiers
Tanya was ten years old at the time – and she remembers every detail of the escape: how Russian soldiers stopped the car on the way out of Kherson and said the road was mined. The sound of the voice that said: “Just keep going down this road if you want to die.”
The volunteer evacuation team tried to take another road, but once again they were stopped.
“The soldiers searched the car and threatened us. They said we would be shot if we continued. I just sat there in the back seat with little Anna in my arms – completely terrified,” Tanya says.
“They did not treat us like children.”
It was late in the evening before the girls reached their temporary shelter by a lake 40 kilometres from Kherson. It was almost a month before they were reunited with their grandparents.
“We have many painful memories from that time. But it felt like a miracle when we were finally reunited,” says grandmother Natalia.
Everyday life in war
Since then the family has moved twice to get further away from the front line. They now live in a small village near Mykolaiv, where they have bought a small farm.
The house is dilapidated after repeated bombardments – it had neither roof, windows nor doors when they took possession of it – and the grandparents have had to repair it themselves. It is heated only by an old-fashioned stove, so it can get very cold in the Ukrainian winter, when the temperature regularly drops to minus 15 degrees Celsius.
“It was very hard when Anna was very little. She couldn’t get out of bed and she cried all the time. But now she has grown, and everything is a little easier,” says Natalia.
For a long time there was no water in the taps because the Russians had destroyed the village’s water supply. Recently, DanChurchAid helped the residents build a new water tower. This means that the family can finally shower indoors again – a much-needed improvement that means everything for their sense of dignity and normality.
The soil was rock hard and almost impossible to plant in when they moved in. But it was important for Natalia and her husband to harvest their own vegetables to get through the winter. It has therefore made an big difference that DanChurchAid has helped the villagers with various tools and seeds. They chose a rotary cultivator so they no longer have to dig everything by hand.
When the adults work in the fields, Anna rides her bicycle on the foundation of an outdoor kitchen that was destroyed by Russian bombs – a quiet reminder of how deeply everyday life has changed for everyone in Ukraine.
“I think about my daughter every single day. And like all other Ukrainians, I dream that the war will end soon. That is the greatest dream of all,” says Natalia.
Four years of war – the consequences
Since the Russian Federation launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, four years of hostilities have killed more than 15,000 civilians and injured over 41,000, displaced millions, and damaged and destroyed civilian property and infrastructure.
In 2025 and 2026, the harm to the civilian population demonstrably worsened: more civilians were killed and injured than in 2023 and 2024, and civilians across the country suffered the dire consequences of sustained and systematic attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (February 2026)
