February 24 is the day that destroyed everything

"This article will tell you more than news".

This article is about the all-out war in Ukraine that Russia started on February 24, 2022, and how that day affected people's lives not only in Ukraine but beyond. What is happening in Ukraine, what was February 24 like for teenagers and how do they live now? You can find the answer further

It didn't all start on February 24

Since 2014, the Russian president has been trying to conquer Ukraine and Ukrainian cities like Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea. When the Ukrainian people held a "Euromaidan" with the help of the Maidan in Kiev (November 21, 2013 - February 22, 2014), they were able to get rid of the "Russian" president, who began to destroy Ukraine from the inside. When the whole government was against the people, Ukrainians demonstrated their courage and truly Ukrainian blood, but on February 24, 2022 Putin decided that the Ukrainian people must be "saved". Since 2014 there is war in the occupied territories . .

What happened on February 24?

Everything started in the night. Ukraine began to "separate" from the surrounding world. Airports began to close, the authorities started meetings, and around 5 a.m. an all-out war between Russia and Ukraine began. The first cities to receive the enemy were Kharkiv and Mariupol, and later the bombardment of the entire Ukraine began. For several weeks the news warned about the danger, so they told how exactly Ukrainians could help themselves in case of war. Ukrainians did not really believe that the war could start, but on February 24 nothing could be changed.

The strongest people are among us

Teenagers of the 21st century have many problems, even more than adults, and this is a fact. Teenagers have a lot to do, and everyone wants a lot from them. Teenagers from Ukraine, children, how do they live during the war, without being able to return home and lie down in their beds? How was the morning of February 24, 2022 for teenagers and February 24, 2023? A year of war in Ukraine, a year without a home, life abroad, misunderstandings among peers, language problems, depression and other problems of teenagers, read true stories further

"We are also human beings, and we also have our problems"

Daniel Medko 18 years old, from the city of Kharkiv

The morning of February 24 killed me. I woke up at 4:25 am to the "distant" sounds of explosions, mistaking them for fireworks. These explosions made the house I was sleeping in vibrate, so I didn't understand or didn't want to understand what was going on. I tried to sleep and pretended not to hear anything, but in a minute I heard an explosion, it was louder, and then I realized that a war had started that I didn't believe in. I sat on my bed hoping it would stop, but through the door of my room I heard my father say, "It has begun," after these words everyone got up from their beds and at that moment they began to "sort out" the situation. The time dragged on forever. Around seven in the morning we heard the president's speech and finally understood that the war had begun. My father had a car, when we got together we went to another city for safety, to a country house, where I stayed for 18 days and saw my father for the last time .On March 12 we found a possibility to go abroad, which became for me a hope for a better life, but only in terms of a change of environment. By February 24, 2022 I started to change my life, I was a high school student and had big plans for life. I finally came out of depression, but after February 24, 2022, I found myself back in the "unhappy" purgatory of my life. In the summer of 2022, I entered the 10th grade of a German school, which gave me a good impulse to start a new life. Since I never studied languages, it was difficult for me to learn German, but now I am just thrilled with my results. I've been in Germany for almost a year and I haven't seen my home country or my father since March 2022. I don't want to give up, I want to learn in Europe, develop myself and get a university, it would be better if I do this than to return to the past and regret that I can't fix anything.

Sasha 14 years, from the city of Severodonetsk

It all started on February 24, I woke up unusually early at 6 am. My mother woke me up saying "Wake up, the war has begun". Explosions were heard, but we were not afraid, because since 2014 we lived in the frontline zone (under the control of Ukraine), part of my region Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk region was occupied by Russia for 8 years. On the second day heavy bombardments started, they shelled all the houses around our house, I was afraid for my little brother, my parents, my grandparents. Once my father went to the store and a shell fell near him, there is another case with my grandmother, she went to the store, then there was heavy shelling, all the windows were broken in our entrance. For 2 weeks we were shelled (we couldn't leave, we didn't even take a cab through the city) and after 2 weeks a neighbor offered to take me, my mother, my brother and my grandmother in his car. We arrived at the train station. There were so many people fighting to get on the train, everyone wanted to live, we miraculously got on the train. There was not even a place on the train to stand, we were traveling 34 hours from one end of Ukraine to the other, because Russia was shelling the railroad, we were stopped to repair it. When we got to the station there was no place inside to warm up. I didn't sleep for 3 days, so I fell asleep on the floor and woke up intermittently. The next day we went to Poland, we stood in line at customs for 5 hours. After we arrived my brother got sick, he was in a Polish hospital for a week with his mother, after he recovered we went to Germany because there was no place to live in Poland. My grandparents are now in occupation, my father also stayed in Severodonezk, he tried to leave Russia (because of occupation it is impossible to go to Ukraine) to Germany, but they beat him at the Russian border and wanted to kill him, but he was able to leave because a car with Ukrainian license plates passed nearby and he quickly got into this car, and the people in the car were from my town. My father was able to cross another Russian border after 3 months and now he is also in Germany.

Julia 16 years, from the city of Kiev

On February 24, I woke up to the sound of a siren. I was scared and did not understand what was happening. Riots, screams, distant explosions and sirens everywhere. I lived alone and the first thing I looked at was my cell phone, there were 50 missed calls from my mother and 37 from my father. It was six in the morning on the clock. I didn't understand all this horror and thought it would all be over soon. We drove all over Kiev, there were many cars, huge queues, 5 km to the gas station and a lot of shouting. We left Kiev and drove through Gostomel. This airport was one of the first to be affected. When we got there, they started shooting at us from a helicopter. A car that was being shot at stopped in front of us, and we were able to turn around and drive away. We arrived at my uncle's private house and pretended everything was fine for two days, but on the 26th we ended up in the basement. We didn't leave the cellar for three or four days. Our town was shelled, the projectile hit our house and touched the facade. On March 2, father and uncle went to scout and were told that we had one hour to pack up and leave because 200 enemy tanks were coming toward us. We went out of town and saw many dead bodies. We took a country road to my farthest village to wait a bit. A destroyed road, torn bodies, destroyed gas stations, blown up tanks and burned cars. It was scary, very scary, my mother, sister and dog settled in another village and I haven't seen them since the war started. I wanted to join them, but it was not possible at that time. That night I had a conversation that changed my life. Dad told me to go to Germany. First, I will be safe there, second, I will be able to get a good education, and third, it is a good opportunity to realize myself and help my family. I didn't want to go, I cried, I screamed, I wanted to go to my mother. It hurt me to understand that I might not see her for a very long time, we didn't even say goodbye. On the morning of March 3, my father's wife and I left for Germany with her mother and daughter. We traveled to many countries, and I will never forget how I went home every night and cried, hoping that everything would be a dream when I opened my eyes.

Olga 15 years, from Kherson

My morning on February 24 began with the words of my mother: "The war has begun". In that second I was speechless and as if my world had collapsed inside me. That day everyone panicked and everyone packed their bags. I remember how all my friends called me and said they were leaving. Since I lived in Kherson, Ukraine, we were occupied an hour after the war started, Russian tanks and helicopters were already on the streets. I spent the next four months and 11 days in the occupied city. I remember not wanting to eat or sleep, thousands of thoughts and questions spinning in my head. They distracted me somehow. I read textbooks, went to online classes, and stretched. I was scared when my mother and brother went shopping, because if the Russians didn't like something, they could just shoot them. My best friends were books, family, pets, and friends who kept in touch with me. I remember how in the summer it was a happiness to go to training, walk in the streets of my home and eat fruit. When we left Kherson, it was very scary because roadblocks were waiting for us, the border with occupied Crimea, another border with Latvia, and then another 1000 km to the island of Usedom. During the war I understood many things and grew up for a dozen years. Very often I am sad in my memories of Ukraine, because I understand that everything that was not there is lost. Now I study in Germany and also in Ukrainian school online. It is difficult for me to do all this at the same time and in addition I have to learn German. For me, the day of February 24 lasts for a year and I hope that soon the 25th will begin and everything will end ...

Karina 14 years,from Kryvyi Rih

On February 24 my life was divided into "before" and "after". On the evening of the 23rd I went about my usual business, rummaging through everyday trash. As usual, I fell asleep around three in the morning ... And already at five I woke up to the sound of explosions. I remember exploding out of bed and listening with bated breath while standing confused in the middle of the room. Noise - windows shaking, noise again, windows - shaking again. I ran to ask my mother what had happened and she told me that the war had started .... It was very frightening. Mom in hysterics said that we would gather all the necessary things, get dressed in a minute and a half and rush to the door. We had already collected all the bags with documents and other things, we were going to look for a shelter, but a message came that our city was still safe, so we just went to the stores and pharmacies to buy more of what we needed. There were huge lines in the stores and there was almost nothing left on the shelves. The first few days when the alarm went off we immediately ran to the basement, we were all literally living in the basement, it was very scary. Nevertheless, after a while we had the opportunity to leave Ukraine. We went to the border by train for several days, because the train was stopped very often because of alarm, nevertheless we managed to cross the border, for one night we stayed in Poland, in a refugee home, so that the morning would come and we would continue, then we went all day by bus through Poland to get to Germany. We got to Germany, we were very tired from the road. We were taken in by a friend of our mother who lives in Germany. Now everything is good. We hope very much that the war will end soon....