On March 2nd, Daria’s village in the Zaporizhzhya region of southeastern Ukraine was invaded by a heavily armed unit of 200 Russian soldiers. The soldiers ransacked and searched each and every home in her village for civilians. Upon reaching Daria’s, they found her and her ailing mother inside – forcing their way in and interrogating them at gunpoint. Suddenly, a shot was heard outside. Daria’s mother ran outside and, in the distance, saw her beloved husband’s body laying on the ground, murdered in cold blood by the soldiers. The armed invaders prevented Daria and her mother from so much as approaching the body of her father and explicitly forbid them from leaving their home. After three days of imprisonment and interrogation, Daria and her mother were allowed to collect her father’s remains and bury him.
In the months since, Daria and her mother have been displaced from their native village due to her ailing mother’s need for ongoing cancer treatment; forced to leave their home, their source of livelihood, their community and support system – and their murdered father and husband’s final resting place – behind.
