Onoprienko Family Needs A Home

Vitaly, age 55, and Natalia, age 52, lived with Natalia’s mother, age 78, in a peaceful village. On February 24, 2022 the family saw that everything around them was on fire. Neighbors all ran outside to help each other put out the fires. Natalia worked in a store and helped distribute the last of the food it had there. Fighting began in the streets a week later. The family hid in the garage because it was the safest place they had for shelter. The village was fully occupied on March 13, 2022. The family wrote “People” on their gate to prevent Russians from moving in. They ate food from their cellar so they didn’t have to eat the moldy bread and spoiled vegetables distributed by the occupying Russian forces. In the first days of the occupation, Russian machine gunners were placed around the village so that people would not run away. Two months into the occupation the family saw a neighbor being led down the street with a bag on his head. The Russians told everyone that he was a fire adjuster and they were taking him to be shot. This convinced Vitaly and Natalia to move to another house nearby because they were told they would be shot next. The Russians broke into their house and took their son. The family collected all the gold they could find to buy their son from the Russians and sent him through swamps at night to Ukrainian territory. They couldn’t sleep well because they didn’t know if their son was okay. Vitaly helped people escape through the fields at night to enter the village of Tsupivka and brought food to fellow villagers. The family was able to leave the occupied territory through nearby fields a month later. Their son is currently serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the family lives in a dormitory.