KYIV CITY, Ukraine — From her small basement in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, 28-year-old Iryna Khomik wants the world to know what the last eight days of the Russia-Ukraine war have been like.
Khomik told WFAA it has felt like one long day.
“In fact, it’s eight days with no sleep,” Khomik said.
Khomik is sheltering with 10 people in her basement. They’re her neighbors, family members and a young child. They live nearby, but didn’t have basements of their own for safety.
“We’re cold. We have no running water, we have no toilet, and that’s how we live right now,” said Khomik.
She hasn't slept in days.
“I hear ballistic rockets flying over my home, I saw a Russian helicopter above my roof. I’m hearing shots and explosions all the time,” said Khomik.
Khomik told WFAA she decided to stay in her country as a show of strength.
“If Ukraine stops fighting, there will be no Ukraine,” said Khomik.
Khomik said she feels as if she’s living in a nightmare, but on Friday, something remarkable happened.
“I had to get married today. Under explosions,” she said.
Khomik married the love of her life, Maksym, in the middle of the war. Her husband is a Ukrainian soldier who has been fighting since the invasion of Kyiv began.
For years, they’ve planned a huge traditional Ukrainian wedding.
On Friday, he met up with Khomik and they exchanged vows in the middle of war.
“I had no flowers, no champagne, no wedding rings, just the two of us,” Khomik said. “At the moment, that’s all I needed.”
They got married, then her husband left again to fight for his homeland.
Khomik doesn’t know when she’ll see him again.
“I want to feel somehow connected. I want to have hope. I want him to have hope. That’s hard… that’s not how we imagined our life.”
Although it’s hard, even in the midst of dark days, there was a moment of light: two minutes that Khomik will hold onto in hopes that there will be better days ahead.
“The only dream that we have is the peace on our homeland. We just want to stay here and hug our children, hug our parents, kiss our loved ones. That’s it. We just want peace,” said Khomik.