Kateryna (40)

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

… you flee in a car marked with white sheets at the sound of flying rockets and another car in front of you is being shot at. It's a journey for survival. You know that the chances of you being killed during the evacuation are 50:50. But if you stay at home, you will most certainly die… 

“The journey, which usually takes 10-15 minutes, now takes 2 - 2.5 hours. You feel everything burning behind you and turning to dust. Taxi drivers help evacuate people and decide for themselves which route is safe. We gave 2 addresses to our taxi driver, one was town of Sivenirivka and the other Boyarka. He told us that Sivenirivka was too dangerous, but that he could take us to Boyarka. We travelled for a very long time, and then he finally dropped us off somewhere in the field - me, my mom and a dog. We had backpacks on our shoulders, that was all we left with. We were scared about the place where he dropped us off, but actually, the field was the safest place where we were not in danger at the time.” 

“My mother and I first went to Poland because we heard that there were shorter waiting times at the border. My friend's parents left 4 days later through Uzhhorod, where they waited for several days. It was much calmer there. I was surprised when they told us that life there was almost normal and that the men were buying flowers for their wives there on March 8. Even there were occasional sirens, but people weren’t hiding much there. We were used to hiding after what we experienced in Kiev, and in other parts of the country. One day we heard that they were to bomb Uzhhorod Airport. We had friends in Slovakia who advised us where to go, they helped us to find accommodation. We were already in Bratislava on March 14. There are 10 of us, they accommodated us in a hotel and looked for blankets and pillows for us, otherwise we would all not fit in there.” 

“We are spending all day checking TELEGRAM. As soon as we hear that something is happening somewhere, we try to contact everyone and find out if they are OK.” 

“There is no Nazism in Ukraine. Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, Armenians live there. As everywhere, there may be a far-right supporter here and there, but overall our society is friendly. We are united by strong family bonds. We knew that it could happen again after the annexation of Crimea. We wanted to stay home even after the war started. But the government has begun to tell us that they have neither food nor soldiers to protect us. That's why we had to leave. We like it here in Europe, but home is home, we want to go back. The question is, where are we going to go back? Everything is ruined, we have no hospitals, no schools, nor roads. Even if we return home, our houses and land are full of mines. Not the big mines that you notice right away, but the small ones that you step on and that will definitely kill you.” 

“We are hoping that all our friends and family will survive, for there to be someone to return to. We have no doubt that we will win! But we don't know what price we will have to pay for this to win. And what about the children? My son is in a second grade. They had an online learning the first year because of the corona. The second year started well, but the war came. My daughter told me she dreamed that Putin had killed her. I don't know how they will overcome all this, what sort of generation it will be. Even the escape itself is traumatic for them. You flee in a car marked with white sheets at the sound of flying rockets and another car in front of you is being shot at. It's a journey of survival. You know the chances of you being killed during the evacuation are 50:50. But if you stay at home, you will almost certainly die.” 

“We try to integrate here as quickly as possible, to find a job so that we can send money back home. We understand that there will be less and less aid from abroad, because people will get through this war and get used to it. Therefore, we hope that it will all end as soon as possible and we believe that we will make it to a victorious end!”