Lviv, Ukraine – When Russia first started shelling close to the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk, 11-year-old Alisa hid in the basement of her “internat” – a residential facility for orphans and children whose families cannot afford to care for them.
“I heard lots of explosions outside, and felt very scared”, she says hesitantly. “But my friends kept talking to me and helped to calm me down”. Still, she worried the shelling would last forever.
But later that day, February 24, her teachers decided that Lysychansk was no longer safe. With Alisa and about 20 other children from the internat, they boarded a train. The journey would take roughly 24 hours. The cramped conditions on board and the fear of being bombed en route left the children in a state of anxiety: some of them vomited or developed a fever....
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