I apologize for the lack of content the past month or two. I have been working behind the scenes to make sure I share the correct stories and content. I will continue to share many stories from when I visited Krakow, Poland and engaged with hundreds of Ukrainian refugees. But, these will not be the only stories shared moving forward on Human Connection. I’ll also be sharing stories of people from many different parts of the country and world. I look forward to sharing many human stories with you moving forward!
Today’s story is my team's interview with Dasha back at the end of May. We met Dasha at a World Central Kitchen tent receiving food after she had to flee her hometown of Kyiv. Below is our conversation with her:
Interviewer: Where were you when you found the war broke out on February 24th and how did it make you feel?
Dasha: We heard explosions. My husband woke me up at 5 am: “Dasha, wake up! The war!” I will never forget this. I woke my daughter who is 18 the same way my husband just woke me up. My mother’s birthday was on the 24th of February. She passed away, but we have a family tradition – to gather together that day and we celebrate each other on my mother’s birthday. We had been waiting for that day. Maybe it doesn't seem to be a tragedy to others, but for me, it is extremely painful. We did not know where to run or hide. There were multiple explosions, one after another, from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. It was like a cannonade. I also have many pets—2 dogs, 4 cats, and 2 snakes. And we did not know where to go with our pets. So that’s how the war started for me.”
Interviewer: How and when did you decide to escape to Poland?
Dasha: It was a long road. Kyiv was under heavy attack and the city was trembling. Moreover, there were no bomb shelters near our building; there were just basements. In the beginning, we went to the basement with all our pets each time in case of danger. Then we decided to stay in the hallway at home. It lasted for 2 weeks. We barely slept for 2 weeks, as it was very hard to sleep because of the constant explosions outside. There was street fighting in our district. I realized that I had to protect my child. So we packed our possessions and took an evacuation train to Lviv. We did not know what to do further. So we just went to Lviv. There were so many people—children, women, the elderly—many of them were crying. My pets were crying too. We met one volunteer, as I remember, from the Red Cross. He proposed to drive us to the Polish border. We were naïve, as we did not know what to do with all the pets. But we agreed and drove to Rava Ruska to the border. We stayed in line for nine hours. We crossed the border, and the first thing that I remember is that a volunteer offered me hot soup. And it was the first hot meal for probably 3 weeks and I cried so much. We lived for a while in a refugee center. We lived in a tent because it was prohibited to stay inside with animals. Then volunteers helped us to find a place to live not far from Krakow.
Interviewer: What are your further plans?
Dasha: We are waiting and monitoring the situation. Everyone desires to go home every day. Some people think that the refugees abroad are here on vacation. But it is not true. It’s problematic to find work here. There are so many refugees here. We want to go home. Maybe we will return to Kyiv soon.
Interviewer: In your opinion, how can the world help us to stop the war?
Dasha: Maybe kill Putin and his team. But the problem is that the terrorist state has initiated so much heavy propaganda that Russians are living with the hunger to kill us. It cannot be explained in a logical way. It is absolutely irrational. They live with only the desire to destroy us. To stop this terror, the whole world, not just some countries like Poland, but the whole world should help. Maybe it will be helpful to provide effective air-defense systems. Maybe the 6th package of sanctions will change the situation. But the whole world is afraid of one crazy person. We can observe that in Poland electric vehicles are on the rise. They use alternative sources of energy. So it is achievable to live without Russian resources. And without money, they will not be able to continue the war. But I’m not a politician; I'm just saying what I feel.
As you can see, emotions were running high at the end of May and they continue to as the war rages on more than 6 months after it started.
As mentioned at the beginning, I will continue to share more stories of Ukrainians, but will soon begin to mix in stories of humans from different parts of the world. Next story coming soon!