Leonid, 7 anni, con il suo porcellino d’india domestico preferito che lo ha aiutato a sopportare l’occupazione russa

Chystovodivka in the Izium region, where Leonid lives with his family (parents and 6 kids), was occupied by the russians for more than half a year. The village was liberated by Ukrainian defense forces in September 2022. Natalia, the mother, says they saved on everything to feed their children during the occupation.

“It was very hard during the occupation. We had no money. And kids grow, their feet grow. After every winter, we needed to buy new shoes. We realized no one fit into anything. They basically went barefoot all summer. As soon as the occupation ended, my brother, who lives in Kharkiv, came. We just cried. He brought us everything: water, matches, he clothed and shod us,” she says.

“Our kids love sweets, cakes, chocolate. My brother brought us condensed milk and sausage! We hadn’t seen sausage for half a year because we had no money. It was a real treat.”

Surviving the occupation, Natalia says, was helped by their farm: besides the vegetable garden, they had cows and sheep. She says they traded almost all the rams for gasoline.

One of Natalia’s sons, Mykola, was injured.

“There was shelling. My son was going fishing to catch some fish since the rams had been taken and we needed to feed the family. But the younger son didn’t dig up any worms, and the older one came back — no worms. He thought the younger one got the spots mixed up and took them to a neighbor’s spot. He went to check — and that’s when the shelling happened,” Natalia recalls.

“He was lucky. We were sitting in the house, in the hallway, because of the shelling — we didn’t have time to run anywhere. Two of the boys weren’t with us. We went out to look for them.

We ran down, and he was just coming up: ‘Mom, I’m wounded.’ I’m running down the street, dirty, in what I was wearing, running and shouting: ‘Help, please, I have no money. I have gasoline. I’ll pay with gasoline.'”

The boy was lucky – the fragment went in and stopped near the spine. When the Izium region was de-occupied, the boy was sent to the hospital, where they managed to remove the fragment.

The youngest son, Leonid, hid in the basement and bathroom during the shelling, says Natalia, and during the occupation, he spent all his time with his favorite pet guinea pig.

“The children were used to the internet, electricity, and then — everything stopped. We were in occupation for more than half a year. It was very scary. Those who haven’t experienced this won’t understand. We grazed cows near the yard, but we didn’t go to the grazing area because it was scary, there were lots of Russian soldiers,” says Natalia Pyshna.

Now the family is restoring their farm after the occupation and fighting. They are raising goslings, calves, and lambs.

“We haven’t really recovered from the occupation. We still have boarded-up windows where we sleep. We haven’t recovered. If there’s a bang, we drop to the floor. The war isn’t over yet. “

Truncated translation from source: [https://suspilne.media/kharkiv/770997-ekonomili-izu-ta-ne-mogli-kupiti-nove-vzutta-ditam-spogadi-bagatoditnoi-rodini-z-harkivsini-pro-zitta-v-okupacii/](https://suspilne.media/kharkiv/770997-ekonomili-izu-ta-ne-mogli-kupiti-nove-vzutta-ditam-spogadi-bagatoditnoi-rodini-z-harkivsini-pro-zitta-v-okupacii/)

This kid looks like me when I was seven.
I thank God I didn’t have to go through what he’s had to.
God bless him.
Slava Ukraini 🙏🇺🇦