in Ukraine, born in a country at war

“When you know the situation, it’s really impressive to see how people can adapt, seek and find solutions to keep moving forward, keep living. The astonishment is sincere in Anastasia Kolomoitseva’s voice. Almost detachment, as if this 33-year-old mother was not herself one of the most striking examples of this adaptability.

Her two children, Maksym and Denys, were born prematurely in kyiv a few weeks before the start of the Russian invasion. The pregnancy was complicated. Maksym suffers from cerebral palsy and the stress of birth very quickly combines with that of war. Anastasia Kolomoitseva, a cheerful mathematician from Donetsk with long blond hair and light gray eyes, leaves the hospital on the first day of the war.

While the panic of the first hours prevented some of the medical staff from going to the hospital, the two parents found refuge in the reassuring comfort of their apartment in the capital.

“The impression of having already lived several lives”

March 2022 is the hardest month. The Russian army is tightening its grip on kyiv. Impossible to see a doctor. “Everything was done online, and you can’t do a full exam online,” says Anastasia Kolomoitseva. It is also impossible to get your hands on medication for neonatal convulsions: the specialized pharmacies are closed or now too far away, in this padlocked city of hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints, where trips of a few minutes can suddenly take hours.

The impact of war appears in different ways. She is delaying the start of rehabilitation for Maksym, which does not start until August 2022, as the couple struggle to find a suitable place. It will also be necessary to manage from the fall the power outages caused by the Russian strikes on the country’s power stations. “As long as it only lasted four or five hours, it was fine,” smiles Anastasia Kolomoitseva. The only thing is, it’s hard to hold a baby and a flashlight at the same time. »

Difficult, almost impossible, to think about the future for this couple who had already fled Donetsk in 2014, when the Donbass war broke out. To hold, Anastasia Kolomoitseva has no miracle recipe: the help of a psychologist, sport, regular activity. “On the one hand, this year has passed quickly,” she reflects. But at the same time, you kind of feel like you’ve already lived several lives. In this early spring, the second under the Russian bombs in Ukraine, her two boys are doing as well as possible.

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