[Witness spoke in Ukrainian, interpreted as follows:]
Hello. My name is Anastasiia. I am 16 years old, and I'm from the city of Kherson. I had to spend four months in temporarily occupied Crimea without my family and without the opportunity to go home.
How did that happen? During the Russian occupation of Kherson, we were actively offered a so-called holiday in the camps in Crimea. My mom did not want to let me go, but a teacher in the college where I was studying insisted. She said, “It's nice there. There's no war there.” Of course, when you're under shelling every day, you're worried and afraid every minute of every day, and we were told everything was quiet over there, so my mom ended up agreeing.
We were told that the conditions in the camp were nice. When we came to the camp, there were cockroaches everywhere, in our closets and in the canteen. We had to sleep on dirty, smelly sheets and pillows. Apart from that, it looked like a regular summer camp, but then it changed after a few weeks. We were forced to learn and sing the Russian national anthem each week at a certain time. If we refused, we were admonished for it, and we were told that we were ungrateful.
We were forbidden to speak Ukrainian and show our identity. If we showed that we were from Ukraine, we were harassed. At each event, children from temporarily occupied Crimea had to shout “Glory to Russia”, while Ukrainians were told they had Nazis in their homeland and that it was the Ukrainian armed forces that were shelling peaceful cities.
It was really intolerable, and after my mother asked Ukrainian volunteers for help, she said that she would come and pick me up. I was extremely happy. I was very hopeful that I would see my mom.
It took her 15 days to get to me. She had to go through Poland, Belarus and Moscow, and we went back the same way.
Right now, I live in the Hope and Healing Center. I go to school and I dream of the day the war ends.
Thank you.