Before taking refuge in the Azovstal steel mill, he had not yet said his first word.
Svyatoslav entered the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol with his mother Anna on 25 February.
He was not yet 4 months old.
In there he learned to say 'mom'.
Together they were among the first to leave when - between April 30 and May 1 - civilians began to be evacuated.
"When we entered we thought we would stay there for 2-3 days. The moment a rocket hit us and we had to move to another bunker, I knew we would be staying a long time," Anna told Ukrinform.ua.
There were many more people in the second bunker.
"The situation was heating up, the explosions were becoming more frequent. Even going to the only bathroom was a challenge," explained the young mother.
If it was hard for Anna, it was even harder for Svyatoslav.
"With the first explosions - he says - he was very frightened. Then he got used to it. We spent most of the time in the dark: he liked it, but there was a lot of humidity and I was afraid he would get sick. easy, the soldiers helped me. "
But for Anna and Svyatoslav the nightmare did not end when they left the steel plant.
"Our boys took us to the checkpoints, then we were handed over to the Red Cross, the UN and the representatives of the church.
One of the church representatives told us 'the war is over for you'.
But that was just the beginning. "A few meters from the start, in fact, Russian soldiers got into the buses on which civilians were traveling.
Evacuated from Azovstal, Anna and Svyatoslav came face to face with the feared Russian 'orcs'.
"We drove to some tents at night. We were told to undress. They thought we might be military, they were looking for tattoos and scars."
Before letting them go, the Moscow soldiers checked all personal belongings, scanning phones and downloading photos, contacts and SMS.
Anna told Ukrinform.ua that there were also women in the tents to carry out searches: "They told me 'if you want we can keep your baby'. I replied that they would not take him for anything in the world".
On May 3, finally, the nightmare was over.
