‘My parents are doctors in Ukraine. They’re running between bomb shelters and hospitals.’
Published on Mamamia
March 3, 2022
“When is it going to end?”
It was the exasperated question that Victoria Stepanenko’s mother, Dr. Natalia Stepanenko, sobbed from a Chernihiv hospital, in northern Ukraine.
Victoria, 23, speaks to her parents several times each day from her home in Sydney – although the calls usually only last a minute or two, “because they have to help someone, or hide somewhere.”
But a few days ago, their call got disconnected. A couple minutes later when Victoria phoned again, she could hear the sirens going off in the city. And then a nearby explosion.
“My heart broke down,” she tells Mamamia.