World Desk, AnyTV
Published by: Amit Mandal
Updated Fri, 25 Feb 2022 09:35 PM IST
Summary
Russia’s attack on Ukraine has horrified the people of this country. People are leaving the city and running towards the villages. One of them is BBC Ukraine editor Marta Shokalo, who described her ordeal in this way.
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Marta’s ordeal
Marta writes, I woke up at three o’clock and saw the news, and realized that I had to leave Kiev immediately with my own son. Tanks were coming from the north and other directions towards the city. It was clear that the Russian army was trying to surround the city and would soon succeed. Air raid warnings showed there was a threat of strikes by 8 o’clock. 30 minutes after watching the news, I could hear the sound of explosions from afar. On Thursday, several people were traveling in vehicles from Kiev towards the western city of Lviv and the Polish border.
10 year old son shivering with fear
I called my husband who is away from home now. I planned to go east to the village of his parents living in the interior of the countryside of Ukraine. We also made this decision for our 10-year-old son, who spent Thursday trembling with fear. I started packing. Just put on the same face that is taken in a situation when you do not know when you will return. I also took a swimming costume, yag, thinking that maybe we will have to stay in this country in the summer too. We left at 7:30 immediately after the curfew was lifted and headed east through Kiev on the other side. In the direction I was traveling, the roads were empty. Outside the city we passed Ukrainian tanks which were moving in the opposite direction towards Kiev.
Was happy to be alive…
I did not know if I would get the Russian army. I was focused that we have to get there somehow. I paused intermittently to check my phone and learned that street fighting was taking place in Obolon, a northern suburb of Kiev. My colleagues living there were trying to leave. Such terrible things were happening. Yet it was a fine sunny morning, a sign of spring in the countryside. After two hours we reached the village. I crossed the mulberry tree, where last summer we were very happy to collect the fruit. Today I was happy again but in a completely different way. Happy to be out of Kiev, happy to be alive, happy to be in a safe place with her son.
Allies were also called to their villages
With my in-laws I ate properly for the first time in 24 hours. A great bowl of borsch. I have internet connection here and I can work. If there is a power cut, we have a generator. My main priority is the safety of my BBC colleagues, some of whom are looking for a place to stay outside of Kiev with friends and family. I sent them to my mother-in-law’s village, where there are vacant houses and their owners will be happy to use these houses. We are off the main road, and I hope Russian tanks never come here. It is impossible to know when I will return to my home in Kiev and in what condition it will be when I get there.