“We arrived at the theatre on March 8. We spent the night standing. There was nowhere to lie down. Even though there was a parquet floor in the room, it was very cold. The room was large, and it cooled very quickly.

“The next day, all of us, together with the volunteers, began boarding up the windows with plywood. It wouldn’t protect us from an explosion, but at least no one would be injured by shattered glass.

“The volunteers made life a little easier. They had a field kitchen near the back entrance and cooked something every day. For breakfast, we drank warm boiled water; some people had tea bags, but most of us had nothing. For lunch, the volunteers cooked a kind of broth. For dinner, they handed out hot water again and, if possible, some cookies, especially to children. No one would die of hunger, they said.

“The volunteers were just fantastic. There was one young girl who helped everyone. Little Nastya was about 14 or 15 years old.

“We took food from a nearby store. It’s embarrassing to talk about it, but it’s true. I understand that it was wrong and I didn’t want to do that. But then, when I realised how many people could be saved, I understood that saving a life was much more important.

“Two days before the shelling started, the volunteers counted the number of people in the theatre – about 1,200, but I believe there were more. In fact, they transported all the pregnant women to the theatre from the maternity hospital. It was bombed, and they brought all the pregnant women and mothers with newborns here.

“I don’t know exactly how many there were. I saw three women with infants. But, they settled in the dressing rooms. We didn’t go to that side of the theatre; it’s the right wing. But, I know that someone gave birth during the night.

“The volunteers placed the pregnant women in the dressing rooms, because they thought it was better and warmer there. Sadly, it turned out quite differently.

“We became friends with a family that had a place in the basement shelter. But, they decided to leave Mariupol just before the bombing. Before their departure, they told us to take their place in the basement. It was simply impossible to get a place there any other way. So, on the eve of the bombing, we managed to move from the third floor to the basement shelter.

“On the morning of March 16, the Russians dropped a heavy bomb on the theatre. It was about 9.45am.