Jekatarina, 15 years old, summer camp participant

»I come from the village Druzhovka. In my opinion, the most striking thing about the war was the extent in which the war is connected with betrayal. We have always lived here and belonged to Ukraine and suddenly we were told by outsiders that it was no longer Ukraine and they gave us their rules and insisted that we were not Ukrainians any more and many people fell into it.
And it scares me how much they still defend their position, after all the suffering. My parents took me to another village, when the war started, but we were always in touch. We have no friends or relatives in the occupied territories.
Sometimes one says that you are suppressed in the Ukraine, but in general I would say that you can live relatively free there so I think those are wrongfully accusations.
When the war is over, many people will be ashamed about what has happened towards the people on the other side. They will be ashamed of the treason which has taken place. Even now, there are people who support the other side but are still living in the Ukrainian controlled area. If they really were that convinced of what the other side says, they would have gone to the other side already and given up their home here.
Sometimes I write poems about what touches me. I have a good friend and we are talking about things that have occurred in history. She also likes literature and poems and sometimes she reads something to me and we talk about it.
I really don't miss anything, but I'm frightened by the treason that has taken place here and I'm afraid that people will not give up their old positions.
I hope that in the future smart people will come to power and the war will end. And I would be happy if there were less press censorship and prohibitions, for example many people like Russian literature and now it is rarely sold here.«

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