She left in the morning, and in the afternoon the city was occupied: a doctor from Berislav works in Kirovohrad Oblast

Pediatrician Yana Aleksandrova from the city of Berislav in the Kherson region was forced to leave her home and seek refuge in safer regions of Ukraine on the first day of full-scale war. Now, she works in a primary healthcare center in the Kirovohrad region.

Yana shared her journey from Kherson and how she settled in her new place with Public. She recalls the first day of Russia's full-scale invasion, saying, 'In the morning, we left Berislav, and by noon, it was occupied by Russian troops, and we drove for 25 hours.' Currently, she lives with her husband and son in the city of Mala Vyska in the Novoukrainka district of the Kirovohrad region. Initially, they lived in western Ukraine for the first three months after the start of the full-scale war, then moved to Kryvyi Rih.

Yana and her family decided to gather their belongings and leave the city on February 24, 2022, as they heard the first explosions. It was around 4:20 in the morning. She said, 'We live on the banks of the Dnipro River, and our balcony overlooks the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station. We quickly gathered essential items and left for a nearby village. We sat there for two hours, more people gathered, and we all headed west in Ukraine. I was the one driving, and we spent 25 hours on the road.'

Since September 2022, she has been working in a primary healthcare center in Mala Vyska in the Kirovohrad region. She learned about the job opportunity while living in Kryvyi Rih. The local authorities provided her family with a three-bedroom apartment, and they only pay for utilities. In the future, they may be able to transfer ownership of the apartment to them.

The deputy mayor of Mala Vyska, Alla Zhovtylo, said, 'If she works with us for ten years, we are ready to transfer ownership of this apartment to her.' Yana Aleksandrova currently has 908 patients in Mala Vyska, including 70 infants. She is satisfied with her team and how she was welcomed in her new location by the local residents. However, she sometimes thinks about her hometown and keeps an eye on the news from the Kherson region. Berislav was under Russian occupation for 260 days, from the first day of the invasion until the autumn of 2022. Ukrainian forces liberated the right bank of Kherson, including Berislav, on November 11.

She remembers the day of liberation, saying, 'It was a moment of joy. Everyone called each other. We have friends who lived throughout the entire occupation in the Kherson region, not far from Kherson.' After the de-occupation, according to Yana, Russian forces shelled Berislav. She said, 'The situation is tense. They recommend evacuating children. Most of my colleagues who worked in the medical college and the hospital have already left. Only those colleagues remain who cannot leave their parents and homes.'

In addition to her medical practice, Yana Aleksandrova teaches nursing and pediatrics at the Berislav Medical College. She mentioned that she misses her students but has not yet decided whether she will return to her hometown after Ukraine's victory.