Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine: When the Russian bombing destroyed their hometown of their Marieupol, Yevgen and Tetana decided that they only had one way to escape with their four children: walk.
Speaking on Friday to AFP in the city of Zaporizhzhia Ukraine when they waited for the train to the west, the family told through tears and laughter of a miracle of 125 kilometers (80 miles) to a safe place.
For weeks when the bombing was released to Marieupol, parents tried to prepare their children Yulia, 6, Oleksandr, 8, Anna, 10, and Ivan, 12, for the dangerous trips they faced.
“We explained to them for two months, while we were in the basement, where we will go … we prepare them for this long journey,” said Tetana Komisarova, 40.
“They see it as an adventure.”
Last week, together with her husband Yevgen Tishchenko, a 37 -year -old technician, they finally thought the time had arrived.
Nervously, they lead children from their building. That was the first time they went together since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
Around them they found a scary destruction scene.
“When the children see, they walk still,” Yevgen said.
“I don’t know what happened in their heads. Maybe they also don’t believe that our city is no longer there.”
Live underground
Adults already have feelings about what awaits them. They slipped out of the house to take food and water from the bombings of the shops and faced by corpses scattered on the streets.
“It seems that it is less frightening to die in a bombing attack rather than starving,” said Tetiana.
A shell has crashed into the roof of their apartment blocks and for the lives of children has been fully undertaken underground.
“We brought them books in the basement. The light was so dim that I could barely see, but they managed to read,” said Tetiana.
Anna 10 years naughty described the moments of light playing with friends from the neighboring flat.
“Sleeping on the concrete is not good,” recalled Ponytailed girl.
He insisted that when the bomb fell “we are not too scared”.
“The building shook a lot and there was a lot of dust,” he said. “It’s not fun to breathe.”
Leaving Mariupol.
Finally leaving the basement and the city was “difficult”, said Anna.
“We have to carry our bags and they are heavy,” he told AFP.
At least on the first day, before his father found what was baptized by the “golden cart.”
In fact, it is a rusty and creaking trolley – but runs much easier.
“My wife pushed our youngest girl on a tricycle. And I pushed the train, often with one of the children perched in a bag,” Yevgen said. “The other two walked beside me.”
In five days and four nights of the trip, the family passed many Russian examination posts, telling the soldiers that they headed to their relatives.
“They don’t treat us as enemies, they try to help,” Yevgen said.
“But every time they ask us: ‘Where did you come from? From Marieupol? But why did you go in this direction, why didn’t you go to Russia?'”
At night, families sleep in local residents’ homes that open their doors along the route and are fed well.
During the day, they moved, against all obstacles.
Finally they were lucky and found Dmytro Zhirnikov, who drove through Polohy, a city occupied by Russia which is located about 100 kilometers from Zaporizhzhia.
“I see this family pushing a cart on the side of the road,” said Zirnikov, who regularly traveled Zaporizhzhia to sell vegetables produced by his family.
“I stopped and told them to put their belongings in my trailer.”
After 125 kilometers walking, Tetana, Yevgen, and their small children finished their journey in their battered voices.
Zirnikov remembered the excitement they felt when they emerged from the territory controlled by Russia and saw the Ukraine army.
