It was a placing image.

Valentyna Konstantinovska, then 79, laid out on the ground carrying a lemon-yellow coat, studying to goal a mock assault rifle at a civilian weapons coaching in Ukraine’s southeastern port metropolis of Mariupol.

Lower than two weeks later, on February 24, Russia invaded.

Town was reduce off and laid siege to, with Ukrainian officers estimating that as many as 25,000 civilians had been killed and not less than 95 p.c of Mariupol was destroyed within the brutal months that adopted.

Konstantinovska had deliberate to remain behind, it doesn’t matter what.

“I like my metropolis, I’m not leaving. Putin can’t scare us off,” she informed Al Jazeera on the time throughout a coaching session by town’s Azov Regiment. “We are going to stand for our Ukraine till the very finish,”

A gaggle of older girls who had volunteered for the battle effort since 2014, nicknamed the “Babushka Battalion”, stated they’d take up arms and even go “mano a mano” (hand handy) in the event that they needed to shield their beloved metropolis.

Now, like lots of Mariupol’s former residents, most are scattered throughout Ukraine, and the world.

Members of the military of grannies have ended up so far as Germany and the UK, however a number of stayed in Mariupol.

Liudmyla Smahlenko, 66, stayed within the Ukrainian port metropolis to assist with the deluge of wounded at an area hospital earlier than escaping and relocating to Norway midyear.

No return

One yr on from the beginning of the battle, Konstantinovska is at present dwelling in Vita-Pochtovaya, close to Kyiv, after stints in Poland and Spain.

She returned to Ukraine to as soon as once more assist the entrance by volunteering six days every week to collect provides and weave nets.

“I by no means needed to depart Mariupol. I assumed I might be helpful there. I attended lessons so I might assist the wounded – we had been set to withstand,” she stated.

Nevertheless, on February 26, 2022, Konstantinovska obtained a name from her granddaughter, who has diabetes and was in Poland.

She stated she had fainted whereas taking care of her daughter as a result of her blood sugar dropped to dangerously low ranges, and that nobody was round to assist.

Realizing how severe diabetes and its repercussions will be, Konstantinovska threw on some clear trousers, a sweater and a few meals right into a backpack and rushed to catch the 3pm practice west to Lviv.

As soon as on board, the conductor knowledgeable her it was the final practice out of Mariupol. A number of hours later, the observe was blown up, and inside a number of days, town had been fully reduce off.

“It was solely after I bought to Poland that I found my household had made the entire thing as much as lure me out of Mariupol. My youngsters understood the implications of my refusal to depart,” she stated.

“I solely turned the heater down a little bit bit after I left pondering it will be good to return again to a heat condo after I return. I had no thought I might by no means return.”

She discovered from neighbours who stayed that her home in Mariupol has since been destroyed and her belongings looted.

“Issues that may’t get replaced are gone,” she stated. “Items my late husband purchased from abroad when he was a captain. However everybody in my household is alive with all their legs and arms. I’ve began a brand new life that can result in victory.”

Struggle between good and evil

The siege of Mariupol is the worst atrocity Russian forces in Ukraine are accused of up to now.

In Mariupol, Russia is accused of a number of alleged battle crimes, together with an assault on a drama theatre that’s thought to have killed greater than 600 individuals, in line with an investigation by The Related Press information company, the final remaining media organisation within the metropolis because the violence escalated.

With tens of hundreds of individuals fleeing for security, a as soon as tight-knit group has been modified perpetually.

Pals, neighbours, and individuals who coexisted collectively for his or her whole lives, now stay miles aside.

The individuals Al Jazeera interviewed in Mariupol final yr are actually unfold across the globe: the UK, Canada, Portugal, Turkey, the US and France.

On the primary evening of the battle, Al Jazeera met Viktorii and Andriy Voytsekhovskyy who had been looking for shelter in a subterranean church.

Earlier that day, Andriy had a fortunate escape. A grad rocket crashed into an condo 15 metres (49 ft) from him as he walked his Jack Russell, Chelsea, close to their dwelling within the metropolis’s left financial institution.

With their neighbourhood among the many worst affected, being hit with missiles even earlier than the invasion started, they fled the next day.

Viktorii and the couple’s son, Leon, then two years previous, made it to the Netherlands, however Andriy was unable to depart Ukraine as a result of males aged 18 and 60 had been instructed to remain and combat the Russians.

Viktorii and Leon have now moved to Ternopil, western Ukraine, to be near Andriy, who’s a humanitarian volunteer.

Dwelling for years inside 20km (12 miles) of the tense entrance line with Russian proxy forces, the household invented a fairytale to appease Leon’s fears.

There may be an “evil king” and he desires them to be afraid, however they won’t give him that.

Now, Viktorii is within the closing levels of ending her first animated movie based mostly on the story, which she plans to launch later this yr.

“It helped my son perceive what was happening – it was a combat between good and evil. He referred to as the jets ‘evil dragons’ that had been ‘spitting fireplace in all places’, the tanks for him had been caterpillars with weapons,” she stated.

It gave her the concept to depict the battle in Ukraine by means of a toddler’s eyes. The movie’s manufacturing crew is made up of Ukrainians who fled Mariupol.

“If I had not been capable of do one thing like this, I believe I might go loopy,” she stated. “We by no means really feel secure any extra, it’s very annoying. We stay daily as if it could possibly be our final.”

Konstantinovska, however, feels no trauma after shedding every part.

Solely “anger and hatred in direction of the Russians”, she stated.

If she had stayed in Mariupol, she thinks she would most likely be among the many first useless.

“If I had bought caught, I’d have bitten these Russians – that’s how offended I used to be at them,” she stated. “Crying doesn’t purchase you freedom. It’s the one who fights that features the world.”