Solomia Fedoreyko, 19, a Ukrainian who’s on the run from Russian aggression, cried out loud as she recalled her escape from from the capital Kyiv.
“It is one of the largest such displacements since the Second World War,” Fedoreyko said.
It took her five hours to leave the area of the city on Feb. 24.
“I couldn’t sleep for the last four weeks,” Fedoreyko said “Every day I wake up with the fear of losing my life.”
The student, who was studying at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kyiv and also worked as a copywriter at an IT company, fled to her hometown in the Ternopil region of western Ukraine with her family from Kyiv. She said she doesn’t feel like moving anywhere else at the moment as it is safe for now.
“It’s not just Putin, but every Russian is responsible for the devastation of Ukraine. Even the citizens of the country don’t want us to get independence,” Fedoreyko said.
“Millions of people are homeless in Ukraine due since the war began,” she said.
“Can’t believe, even the young blood of Russia is supporting the hypocrisy of the leader,” Fedoreyko said.
The Russians announced March 29 they will scale back their operations around Kyiv as negotiations continue in Turkey.
Fedoreyko said Russia is spreading fake news that Ukraine was created by Lenin and the country has no right to ask for independence.
“They attacked our orphanages. They did not even bother about the bomb shelters and kindergarten kids,” Fedoreyko said. Every morning she wakes up to the news of bombings in the area where she lived in Kyiv.
“I don’t know if my family and I will be alive in the next few months or not,” she said.
Fedoreyko said it was important to stress that for four weeks now Russia isn’t playing by any rules.
Her boyfriend is still in Kyiv in a bomb shelter serving as an ambulance driver. The city has been largely without power, no internet connections or a phone signal for weeks now.
“All my friends decided to stay back in Kyiv to serve in the emergency hospitalization department,” she said.
Ukraine has asked every country to close trade deals with Russia and supply the Ukrainian military with weapons.
“The world needs to know this, even though Russians are protesting in the city, they are just against the violence and not in support of us,” Fedoreyko said.
She sounded disappointed because Ukrainians have died and millions have been displaced and the neighbouring country is crying about the closure of McDonald’s.
“I was living my life to the fullest until Feb. 24 and suddenly I lost my happiness,” she told Humber News.
Similarly, Natalia Alforova, 39, a Ukrainian-Canadian, expressed her feelings with tears because her 72-year-old mom is still stuck in the country.
“I might be physically here, but mentally I am in Ukraine with my mom,” Alforova said.
Many refugees are sheltered in camps at the borders of Poland, she said.
“I cannot express what I am going through,” Alforova said. “The country where I was born and brought up was destroyed. I don’t even know if my friends are still alive in the country or not.
“My mind is so tired of processing anything,” she said.