Faina Savenkova defines herself as a writer and social activist who lives in the war, but otherwise, she is an ordinary teenager who loves to watch anime and TV series, and if there was no war and she had a choice, she wouldn’t be different from most of her peers.

The girl dreams of simple things such as passing her exams, moving forward in her life, and having fun on holidays, but her biggest dream is to see her country in peace and to witness that the war is over.

Fairy tales are my safe haven

Like other children living in war, Savenkova is used to explosions and deaths, but she found a safe space in writing fairy tales because "magic does not allow us to surrender and gives us hope for peace," as she put it.

Faina lives in Lugansk. She’s a member of the Russian Writers’ Union and a member of the International Federation of Writers in the junior category. 

She won more than four awards and wrote several books, including "The World That Doesn't Exist," an idea she had in her dream, and the novel "Standing Over Your Shoulder," which speaks about life in the Donbass.

Savenkova knows that life, unlike her fairy tales, can be unfair and cruel. Nevertheless, she clings to her dreams and believes that they will come true, as she told Al Mayadeen English, "Perhaps the only good aspect of war is that you learn to enjoy every day you live and make up your mind faster, unlike children who live in safe cities."

UNICEF and the United Nations refused to meet me!

Two years ago, when Savenkova was 12 years old, her name was listed on the Ukrainian "Myrotvorets" website, in which the Nazis record the data of people they describe as "Kremlin agents" and "wanted".

This came after she sent a letter to the United Nations, calling for an end to Kiev's bombing of civilians in the Donbass and reaching peace with Russia.

The website, which was established in 2014, contains the data of many people, including 327 minors.

This information was illegally collected through hacking and phishing then published without their consent.

Savenkova asked Ukrainian President Zelensky to close this website, which is supported by the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior, the Security Service, and Nazi organizations that are legally active in Ukraine, but she did not receive a response.

In this context, she told Al Mayadeen English, "This has affected my life, because I have to think more about my safety, I have to study remotely when others go to school normally. Am I afraid? It is foolish not to be afraid. But this does not mean that I should turn my life into a continuous nightmare with no place for joy. I just became more careful, and followed the safety rules, which I was laughing at earlier."

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Later, she resorted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and UNICEF to delete her own data and the data of other children, but her request was denied and instead of meeting her face to face, they invited her to "become a peace envoy."

She explained to us, "I think they got scared like everyone else when politics gets involved, they don't care about justice, they just do what they are told to in order to satisfy Western public opinion, and they don't do public relations except in cases of great interest."

She is still constantly sending letters to world leaders to draw their attention to the problem of military conflicts in general and the war in Donbass in particular.

She said, "It's not so much about the world leaders, it is rather about the citizens of those countries. Even if it's slow and hard, I want them to understand what's happening in my country, and I hope they can influence their governments because I certainly can't do it by myself, I'm quite realistic about that."

Despite the shelling, we are trying to live like normal children

Every evening, the 14-year-old girl goes out to her balcony in Lugansk and looks at the starry sky.

Silence reigns everywhere, the city falls asleep, and when she hears the roar of cannons, she tries to reassure herself, "It's far away."

"Unlike other cities affected by the war, our city is not scary. We go on with our lives, but we are constantly awaiting a missile or a terrorist attack. It may be horrible, but it has become an integral part of our lives. However, we try to live like normal children, we read books, take walks…"

Everything has changed since 2014, notably the people and the situation in Donbass, but what remains intact is the support of the West for the fascist regime in Kiev, and this is what Savenkova thinks to be the reason that prompted Russia to start its own operation in Ukraine.

She said, "The West has waged open war and we have lost hope of any peaceful solution. Do the Ukrainian people need war? Of course not. Neither do we. But there is no other way, Children grow up when they begin to understand this simple truth."

Savenkova still feels anxious and afraid when someone does not answer her calls or messages. On the other hand, she also does not like to recall the war but she remembers well what happened on June 2, 2014. "I should have gone to the library to get a book for my brother from the summer reading list, but I was too lazy to go, so I told my mother that I was too tired. A little white lie was the reason we didn't end up killed by the bombing of the park near the regional state administration building. At the time, no one believed it was an air strike perpetrated by Ukraine. Later, of course, all doubts were dispelled, but at that time many still had hope."

The children of Donbass, Syria, and Palestine have the same pain

"When the war began, I was too young to think of anyone suffering. What can we understand at the age of five? We can remember, but we can not understand and feel others’ pain. But time passed, and we grew up and watched the news with our family on TV, and we understood that we are like children in Syria, we are all children of one great war."

This is an excerpt from one of the articles that Savenkova wrote on a local website, showing how she was affected by what is happening in the Arab world. About that, she told Al Mayadeen English, "I believe that war affects all children of the world in the same way. This should not happen in today's world, otherwise, how can we talk about development and civilization? I always support the people of Syria and Palestine. Therefore, I bet they do not like me in Israel, which supports Ukraine and turns a blind eye to the crimes of fascism."

Savenkova read a lot about the real Western press. She looked at the narratives of journalists who exposed the crimes of their leaders in Vietnam and many other countries and said, "Journalism is dead, because of lies and fabricated news that launched wars and destroyed many countries. It's the same scenario in both Ukraine and Syria. Pictures are fabricated without any evidence, vital misinformation like accusing Syria of using chemical weapons, and always no one to listen to the other side."

The Russian girl writes permanently about Syrian children. She also received a reply from Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to a letter she sent to him.

He invited her to visit Damascus, but the daughter of Lugansk does not think that she can travel now.

She promised to continue writing about Syrian children, as she writes about the children of Donbass and concludes her speech by saying, "I don't know much about politics, but I have always respected the Syrian president and his family, you know, when you read about a coup in a country, the president leaves his people and flees. It happened in Ukraine, but President Al-Assad did not abandon his country. He defended his motherland and his people. This may be the most important thing a President can do, stand by his people  till the end."