Olga (42)

March 26, 2022, Rusovce. Day 30 of the war.

…There is only one way to get away from Kiev, towards the south, to Odessa. You can't even call this road safe, because bullets are flying above your heads, with our defenses trying to shoot it down, and bombs falling on the road. However, this is the only way today to leave Kiev and not fall into captivity…

“We came from Kiev. We were in the town of Sivirinovka, near Kiev, on February 24. We woke up at half past five hearing the first explosions. Since then, this place has become a front line. My husband and I took the girls and went to Lviv. The irony is that it was his birthday. My parents thought it wouldn't be so serious, so they decided to stay at home. The same goes for my parents-in-law who were in Kiev at that time. Since everyone thought the target of the attack would be the capital, they decided to leave the city. At first they went to Boyerka, but the fighting was going on there as well, so they went on to Rakytny, which is a more distant village from Kiev. After a week we began to realize that Kiev would not be conquered by Russians so quickly. The missiles also flew overhead where my parents where, but it was not as bad as in the suburbs of Kiev and especially in Irpini. Our town has only begun to evacuate now, after a month. The humanitarian corridor has finally been opened. We have neither military bases nor other important facilities. However, the Russians wanted to encircle Kiev, and we were in the area where the tanks were present all the time. They were everywhere, in front of the city, beyond the city. They began to mine the roads and forests. It used to be a place of peace where people came to rest. There were beautiful forests, tulip gardens, bike paths. Today, you can see tanks there instead of bicycles.” 

“My parents were lucky in the first days of the war. The security guards of the town were killed, but the situation in the city was still quiet. They could go to the store, they could go to the restaurant. They do not have a basement in the house, so the safest place in the house, where there are no windows but only walls on all sides, was the toilet. They spent most of their time there. The shrapnel of an exploded rocket fell on their terrace on the fourth day.” 

“My mother is Russian, I was born in Ukraine, but I spoke Russian all my life. Only children in our country speak Ukrainian. We don't understand why this is happening. It is so unfair and so unreasonable. We bought a house outside the city for our parents, so they would have a place to live and relax when they turned old. They are 76 years and they have to go through this. When we left with the children, we could not even imagine exposing them to such danger. We tried to get them out of there in all possible ways for 2 weeks. In the first days, the electricity stopped working, they did not even have water or heat, there was no telephone signal in the city. We didn't know what was going on with them. Many tried to leave in their cars marked with white sheets and “children” inscription. Rockets flew everywhere, roads were destroyed. The residents agreed one night and about 100 cars left without any security guarantees. The roads were destroyed, there was a lot of shrapnel everywhere. The only luck was that only one of the cars got a flat tyre and could not continue, otherwise everyone managed to escape.” 

“Our parents did not have a car, and the other cars were overcrowded. The bombs began to fall on the surrounding streets. Fortunately, those that landed on the neighboring house did not explode. About a year ago, a family moved into our street, with whom we managed to agree that if they left, they would take our parents with them. At first they did not want to leave, the city was still relatively quiet. But when the Russians began to enter private lands, when they came to their home, where they met their children, that was the last straw. They were packed and left within 5 minutes. They also picked up our parents, who left only in what they were wearing. They only took their medicine. My parents were in the first car of the convoy. There are usually no children in the first car, as there is the greatest risk that it could be destroyed. The evacuation was successful. My parents were brought about 15 km far from our town, where we were already waiting for them. From there, we took them first to western Ukraine, as far away from the war as possible. When the Russians attacked Kiev, they had to constantly listen to the sounds of rockets and fighters flying overhead while at home. Part of the family is still in Kiev, we are in contact with them, and we pray that everything will be fine. Fortunately, it is now safer there than in Kharkiv or other eastern parts, where the cities are being completely destroyed. We hope that this will continue to be the case and that Kiev will remain intact.” 

“If you want to leave Kiev, you have only one option - you have to go south, to Odessa. Russian troops and all attacks are coming from the north, from Belarus. On the way you have to go around the town of Bila Cerkva, where there are fuel depots, which were of course also destroyed. You can't even call this road safe, because bullets are flying above your heads, with our defenses trying to shoot it down, and bombs falling on the road. However, this is the only way today to leave Kiev and not fall into captivity.”