A man whose Ukrainian and Russian great grandparents died or were under Nazi occupation
during WW2 escapes the present day war. Interview by Sam Burcher.
When did you decide to escape?
In 2023 I realised that the war is full on and will never finish, probably. And I was thinking how can I escape, because we are not allowed to escape. I was not suitable for the army before, and I never served because I do not hear with my left ear. I had problems with my stomach and my guts, and a number of allergies.
I had all these medical documents so I decided to go to the army recruitment centre and showed them my documents.They said, “Ok good, but we need to make several medical checks with the hospital to prove these documents are real. I said, “Ok, let’s do this.” They told me to come back the next day and we arranged a time. When I came home I remember that evening I received a phone call from the recruitment centre. They told me if I wanted these documents to be approved then I just need to pay. I said, “How? I can prove it in any hospital because my left ear has not worked since my birth.” They said. “No, if you want to prove it, you need to pay.”
Actually it’s a criminal offence bribery, especially if you bribe officials, but because Ukraine is so corrupt you can bribe anyone there, especially if you are told to do this. They told me that I had to collect money, around 8,000 euros. And to pay them through a mediator. I was very, very afraid to do this, but other people told me that they were some sort of nice guys and they will not deceive you. I thought ok I will do this. I withdrew the money from my bank account and I gave it to a mediator, a guy I had never seen before or since. And probably he gave this money to military recruitment officer.
He called in two weeks he said, “Everything is fine, everything is arranged, you can come and we will make these tests.“ Ok, I came and during these tests the doctor who should have signed the paper that I am not suitable looked right into my eyes and said, “You are alright, everything is good with your health and you are suitable for the army.” And then he signed the papers. I was looking at him and said. “How is it possible?” I was so stunned and I called these guys and said, “You got everything, we arranged everything, why did you do this to me?” And they said, “Sorry, sorry, something went wrong. He’s not a doctor and we need to do it again. We will call you.”
At least they let me leave this facility and I went home and they didn’t call me for the next several weeks. I called them and said. “Guys, we need to do something because you have my money still.” And they were telling me like we need to think, we need to call someone, and we need to do this, and we need to do that, and basically they did nothing. After that I decided that I need to enter local university and be a student, because students have a delay until they finish university. I paid money again to bribe the University Dean to enter the University without exams to get this student card so you can show it to military recruiters and say you have exemption from service.
But, I wanted to escape anyway, he says with determination, because I hadn’t seen my family for a long time. And I decided to find a way how to escape. One day, it was the beginning of 2024, January 2024. My wife called me and said that she found a guy who had left Ukraine with the help of some mediators, some guys. I said, “Ok, give me his number.” I called him, he gave me contacts of guys who transport people through border illegally. They told me it would cost also around 8,000 euros and they gave me no guarantees that everything will be ok. Yes, they just told me that. “Yes we do this, we have many people who have crossed the boarder already. So collect the money and bring it to us and we will provide the service.” But I’ve never seen these guys, because they told me that I would need to exchange this money into cryptocurrency and to send this money to their cryptowallets. I was so afraid, it was so scary to do this, it was trust and nothing else because you can lose this money and you have nothing.
First stop Odessa
But I decided to risk, it was like a leap of faith, you know. I decided to risk and converted the money into cryptocurrency and sent it. They said, “Everything is ok. In a week pack your clothes, but not much because it will be a short trip.” That’s what they told me. I said, “Ok, I’ll be waiting.” And I waited for around one or two weeks because they collected a group of people. It was not profitable for them to transport people one by one, so they collect a group of 8-10 people and transfer them all together. In almost three weeks they told us to buy tickets to Odessa and from Odessa they will take us and drive to the border.
Ok, we brought tickets, me and another two guys from my city. We booked a small hostel in Odessa and we came there. We were so lucky, he says with his hands in prayer, because when you step out of train station at Odessa military recruiters can grab you and ask for your documents. We were so lucky they didn’t get us. We avoided them, we saw them coming to people and asking for documents, but we quickly just went round them. And we came to our hostel and we called them and said, “We are here and we are waiting for your instructions.”
And they told us we need to wait for three days because they needed to get people from other different cities to Odessa. We were waiting for three days, and in three days they said we need to wait another three days, he laughs in frustration at the memory, so we waited for another three days. And all the time we are paying for the hotel, although it was not a very expensive hotel, more like a hostel. But anyway, everyday you pay. And in a week, they told us, “Ok we are ready and next day you go.”
We collected our things and we came to a local shop somewhere in the middle of Odessa and I remember we were sitting in a canteen. We were eating and one very sketchy, shady guy came in and asked, “Are you these guys?” We said, “Yes, we are.” “Okay, just wait a little, a car will come soon and they will take you.” We waited for about a hour and then he came in again and said, “See these two cars,” there were two huge SUV’s and we stepped outside and found we were not alone, there were at least twelve guys in a group. And we got into the cars and went through the old districts of Odessa to the border. We had several checks before the border itself.
So when you cross the river not far from Moldova they had border checks, but somehow maybe everything was arranged with border guards, They didn’t notice us, but we didn’t go through the border itself, we went through some places, around some villages. And around 9pm they drove us somewhere in the fields to a small house and we got out. The driver told us we needed to wait until it was completely dark. So around 10pm I remember this guy came who was like a leader and a guide. He was a local guy who knew this place very well, he knew how to avoid border patrols and he knew the way. He told us he could go through the border and they had a bus waiting for us somewhere in Moldova and we will be fine. We decided, “Ok, but how long will this take us?” He said, “Around two hours and you will be fine.”
The long walk to the border
We started to walk and he led us. And it was complete darkness. Like maybe they decided to choose this day when there was no moon, no stars, and clouds. And even in an open space in a field you couldn’t see anything. So if you got lost and you couldn’t see your guide then you are lost basically. And I remember we are almost running, we’re walking quickly through fields, through small forests. I remember my legs were wet, completely wet. I looked down and I could see I was almost up to my knees in water walking though the fields.
And it was cold, it was the middle of March, it was still cold at night. But we didn’t care, we had decided no matter what, we will get there. And after two hours we asked the guide, “How much time left? He said, “Ah maybe it’s a difficult route, border guards are everywhere. We will take another route.” Ok, so we walked for another two hours. It’s around midnight or 1am and we’re walking, and at one moment we saw a border patrol. We see lights and the guide told us, “Quickly, quickly get down, hide in the bushes.” We went down and waited for around 15 minutes and the border patrol left and we got up and went further on. After an hour we realised we had lost one guy, because we had 12 people when we started and we decided to count each other, and there was only 11 people. Our guide somehow he decided that the guy that got lost was from the border patrol or the security services who will get us into a trap. And he told us. “No, no no, we need to change route again.”
We asked him, “How long will it take?” He told us “ We will change route again. We will cross the border from the other side somewhere.” We didn’t know where. We were so tired already we didn’t ask any more questions and kept walking until 4 or 5 am. It could have been almost 6am, because I remember it went a bit bright somewhere. We had one guy who was 55 years old. He was huge and obese, he was breathing heavily and we realised that he might die basically because he was very unfit for this kind of journey through fields. We were wet, dirty everywhere and this guy decided, “No, I want to get there,” and he dropped all his things; his backpack, his bag, his clothes. He only kept his documents and a bottle of water.
And we went further and almost before we came close to the border our guide said, “You know guys I am a criminal in Moldova so I can’t go any further with you.” And he just started to run away. It’s like a 100 metres to the border and this guy, who is our guide is running away and leaving us alone in the darkness. And we were like, Oh my God, what to do? We didn’t know what do, so we decide ok we’ll ask God to save us somehow and cross the border. He clasps his hands in prayer again. So we came closer to the border and around the border we saw a huge trench, a dug out anti-tank pit. It was 4 metres wide and 3 metres deep. So what to do? You need to get inside and get outside with the help of each other. So we all jumped in and pushed one guy up and he helped us to climb to the other side.
Across the border
When we crossed the border we were on the brink of collapse, because we were so tired, dirty, and heavily breathing. But we were happy. Finally we could turn on our phones because we couldn’t use them before, because they could track us. We realised that we were in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in Moldova already, but in the fields again, he laughs. Ok, we found the closest village and how to get there. We followed a small road and decided to get to the village, which took another two hours to get there. We got to this village at around 8am. The first house we came to we asked for some water, we had drunk all our water many hours before. It was such a relief to drink water after all this journey.
After we came to this village and saw the local guards we surrendered to this patrol, a Moldovan patrol. They brought us to some kind of migrant prison where they check you, they check your documents look if you have any criminal offences in Ukraine or something like this. Actually it was ok, it was not like a standard prison, it was more like a mental hospital with locked doors, but nice beds and toilets and all this stuff and we even had free tea and so guys were really kind there.
They were not allowed to send us back because Moldova wants to get into the EU and they have to obey European rules not to send refugees back to countries where war rages. So one of the guys from the Moldovan border patrol asked me to show him where exactly we crossed the border. So I asked him. “Will you just push me back?” He said, “No, you can even see your Ukrainian border patrol and show them your ass!” He chuckles at the memory. I said, ok, so we went to the place in his car and I showed him where we crossed the border and he found a pair of sneakers there. One of our guys lost a pair of sneakers exactly in the place where we crossed the border and he found them, and said, “Ah, that’s yours then.”
Migration and family reunion
So everything went well and they recommended us for Migration and we had to wait for two weeks in Moldova. We rented a cheap place. Actually, Moldova is the cheapest place to rent. We rented a three bedroom flat for $500, a nice flat, new. And we spent two weeks there until we got our passports back. And then I brought a ticket to Spain and got onto the plane.
Ah, by the way, one moment. When we got into Migrant Prison I called a local lawyer because before the trip I found a local barrister who deals with all these migration problems and refugees. He told us, “Ok I will help you.” and we went to his offices, and he charged us 300 euros just to talk with the authorities about our cases. But anyway, he did his job and everything went well and the authorities left us alone without any problems. When I crossed the border check at the airport they asked me for the number of my case to check if I was allowed to leave Moldova or not. And luckily our lawyer had given us the numbers of our cases, yeah and it went really well, quick.
And then I left and arrived in Spain to my family and now I live with them. It was the happy reunion of my wife, my teenage daughter and my cats.
What is your hope for peace, and for Ukraine? Will you go back there after the war?
I don’t want to live in Ukraine anymore because I realise that there are so many angry, greedy, and stupid people living there and I don’t want to live among them. And probably after the war it will be criminals everywhere.
Part 1 and Part 2 of Escape from Ukraine demonstrates the futility of war and that trauma repeats itself over and again on subsequent generations. Perhaps the only way to move towards peace is not to fight.
A huge thank you to this brave young man for his detailed insights into his emotional and physical response to war in his country.
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