Diary of War

11 March 2022

Day sixteen

Anna [Odessa]

The situation in Odessa is escalating. My boyfriend has asked me to leave. I have spent the last three days unable to calm down. I can’t believe I would have to leave everything. My home, my family, even my cat, whom I love madly.

Friends of mine are already in Germany and call me every day, begging me to come. But I want to stay until the very last moment. I am very scared to go alone. My mother refuses to go with me—things don’t seem that scary in her mind. I find out that Margo wants to leave, too. I have met her a couple of times before and we decide to flee together.

Mum asks me to come back if things abroad don’t work out. My boyfriend asks me with all his might to stay there, in a foreign country, and to return only as a last resort.