During the occupation, 72-year-old Lyudmila Dmytrivna moved to Oleshki to help her older sister, who is 91 years old. During the summer, they moved to a country house on the Dnipro River, not far from the Antonivka bridge – there they were able not look at the faces of the Russian invaders every day.

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When Russian troops retreated from Kherson to the left bank, the bridge was blown up. The women found themselves in a "dacha blockade" without electricity, without a way to leave. They ate what they got from their garden, Lyudmila fished, and neighbors called and told them to take leftovers from their dachas. The women lived in such isolation for 7 months. And then the Russians blew up the Kakhovka HPP dam.

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Lyudmila woke up to the fact that the house began to flood. She quickly pumped up the rubber boat and set it on the water. She took the documents, the cat, spent an hour and a half moving her sister into the boat. They tied the boat to a mulberry tree and waited for the water to recede, but the current only grew stronger.

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Lyudmila says:

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"Then a drone flew up to us. I didn't know whose, but it was flying over us for some time... I talked to it - “Just throw that thing you have hanging on you on my head!”. I thought it was explosives. The drone buzzed, descended and dropped something in the boat. It was a champagne bottle with a note in it: "A Ukrainian military boat will come to get you. Wait".

The drone flew up and away, and Lyudmila headed in the direction the drone was pointing. A dog was swimming nearby, it was also taken into the boat. A hundred meters later, the women saw a motorboat with the military. They shouted: "Ladies, get here!".

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At that moment, the dachas were already completely underwater, only the roofs were visible. The soldiers said: "We will now take a break and then rush across the Dnipro. And you, ladies, you just pray."

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