Pasha (17)

June 8, 2022, Zilina. Day 104 of war.

He came to Slovakia alone. His mother is seriously ill and may not have been able to complete the journey. He was very lucky to be able to leave Ukraine. He will certainly never forget his escape. Like all the stories of his friends and acquaintances that he told me about. About how one of them cried for an hour after the first contact with the shooting. About how you get used to the bullets flying around your head, or the fact that you go shopping for food and the enemy tank is pointing in your face. He has to take care of himself in a foreign country, he’s looking for a job and looking forward to returning home so he can continue his studies. 

“My name is Pasha. When the war began, my mother and I were in Cherson, where I helped and supervised her during her treatment. On the morning of the 24th, my phone  almost exploded with messages. Instagram was full of messages like: I love you all, if I didn't have time to say goodbye, then I'm sorry. I didn't want to tell my mom that the war had started because she has brain cancer. I couldn't hide it, we had to go to the hospital, and we saw explosions along the way. At first, the attacks were not so strong, but we could not sleep for the next few days. When the Russians entered the city and the occupation began, we tried to get out of the city in all possible ways. We have managed to! Well, it costed us a small fortune.” 

“We went further from the Russians, but they came to us again. They treated the local population terribly. They took your phone just because they saw it was better than theirs. They introduced an evening curfew in the city. It was 5 minutes before the curfew began when my mother and I were returning from the walk to the anti-bomb shelter, and we were stopped by the Russians. They immediately started asking us various questions, checking us out, aiming their weapons at us so that we would not approach them. Suddenly we were surrounded by a whole group of soldiers. They behaved really disrespectfully. An old man was even taken in for investigation because a homeless man broke into his house and wanted to steal his radio. The Russians heard the argument, entered the house, and the old man threw the radio at them. He ended up badly, they dragged him to the school, where they set up a base. He was interrogated and beaten for 3 days. There have been many such cases. They also stole from hospitals, from where they took cars that were used to transport hospital linen. Another time they robbed private security comany, they took bulletproof vests and batons from them.” 

“I managed to leave by miracle. I am a strudent-medic, I will turn 18 soon, so I would not be allowed to leave Ukraine after that. We lived near Crimea, so I tried to escape there. First they (the Russians) put us in a common room, and then they called us one at a time for questioning. They check everyone, take all your things, also phone, and then you sit and wait. I waited for about 3 hours, but when I asked other people, they told me they were there for a few days. They did let me go! I got to Moscow via Simfernopol and the Crimean bridge, and from there to the border with Latvia. I traveled through Russia for 3 days. Unfortunately, I had to leave my mother in Ukraine, she was already in a bad health and mental state, and she would not be able to complete the journey.” 

“My mother and I are in contact. She has relatives around her, so I wasn't too afraid to leave her at home. The most serious problem is that it she has to get treatment, but there is nowhere to undergo procedures and treatment. Unfortunately, there are problems with the signal and the internet where she is located, so we only manage to speak once every 3-4 days. I am an only child, my father does not live with us. At the beginning he was somewhere close to Kiev, from where he tried to leave, he had to try 3 times. The first time the rockets exploded 100 meters behind his bus, the second time they started firing at the bus, and only the last time did he manage to leave. From there he went to Zaporozhye, where their bus was checked by the Russians. It was the beginning of March, it was cold, everyone was undressed and checked. They had to stand outside in the cold and wait for an hour before they released them. He got as far as Lviv. He was very lucky because he was previously in the area of ​​Bucha. He managed to leave at the last moment, before the massacre of the local population began.” 

“They (the Russians) are shooting in our area, even though the Ukrainians are practically no longer there. Teachers are being taken to the Crimea to undergo a test and to confirm their new attestation. It's awful that it's still happening there. Mom was very worried about me, but she was glad I was leaving. I would like to stay here until the fall, make some money so I can return home and help my mother with the treatment. I will also have to return because of the school I want to finish. I hope the situation calms down. Our army has already begun to liberate the Kherson region. Most of my friends have fled across borders. Before, our city was full of life, even though it was not big. There were 16-18,000 inhabitants, but the streets were always full of people. Now it's just a place where the wind blows through the streets.” 

“The other friends are either abroad or at the war front line. They told me that when they first experienced the shooting, one of them cried for about an hour. Death and bullets in the air are always near you. There are also my acquaintances, who are like me, only 16 - 17 years old, in the trenches. When the Russians came to our city, but our troops had not yet left, my mother and I needed to flee. Taxi service no longer existed, we had to run. Those were my fastest 4 km in my life. At times I felt like bullets were combing my hair, it was awful.” 

“You feel scared at first, but then you get used to it. You hear explosions, and you just think, something explodes somewhere, so what. You will also get used to going to buy the food while the tank is pointing in your face.” 

“I don't understand how this could have happened. In the 21st century, when borders are almost non-existent, at least in Europe. What do they want from us? The worst part is that they really believe that there are fascists among us. It is not just the lies of Russian television, it is the cruel opinion of the Russians about us. When they stopped me at the border, for about 25 minutes the Russian soldiers read to me how terrible we were, how the Russians in Ukraine were tortured, how great Russia was, and that they had to come to set us free. Those words are scary. A friend even told me that those who did not support the new Russian order in their city were considered fascists by the Russians. However, there are many among our people who have believed in Russian propaganda. Especially at a time when we were occupied and the Russians began to bring us humanitarian aid. Help came, but it was often after an expiration date. The stones could be broken with that bread. When we told them that, they told us that they had nothing to eat because of us. In the mean time, the Russians export a few containers full of grain a day from our city to the Crimea, and the local administration does nothing about it, only tries to hide it and sweep it under the table. People see it, they also protest, but these protests are quickly suppressed. The Russians find out who took part in them, and then they gradually raid their houses and torture them. It happened to a friend of mine. He was a big patriot, and today he is afraid to leave the house.”