A 65-year-old man managed to escape alone from the occupied territory of Donbas. This was reported by the Pokrovsk City Military Administration.
“Sixty-five-year-old Vasyl Petrovych (name changed) spent his entire life in the small village of Shevchenko in the Pokrovsk district of the Donetsk oblast. There, he had a house, a small shop where he made a living, and a car he used to transport goods. But when the war came, everything turned to ashes", - the statement said.
When russian soldiers occupied his village, they came to his home, taking his car, mobile phones, and all the money Vasyl had in his shop. His house also suffered from shelling—windows were reduced to fragments, and the roof leaked from numerous strikes.
At first, Vasyl tried to survive under occupation, though it was unbearable. Cut off from the outside world, with no hope of a return to normal life, he lived with the thought that one day he might escape. Four days ago, at night, he decided: it was time to leave. Leaving the village, Vasyl embarked on a perilous journey. His trek lasted three hours, during which he constantly heard the buzz of drones overhead and artillery shells exploding nearby. To avoid targeted fire, he walked through fields, at times risking his life crossing mined areas.
At dawn, Vasyl reached the nearest safe point, from where he made his way to a transit center in Pavlohrad. His journey took four days: along the way, he passed through Hryshyne and Dobropillia, where he found temporary shelter and sought help from compassionate people.
When the humanitarian mission “Prolisok” met Vasyl in Pavlohrad, he was exhausted and disoriented. During a conversation, it emerged that his daughter had been living in Israel for over 10 years, and his son was in Portugal. He wanted to join them but didn’t know how, as he had no contact with them and couldn’t remember their phone numbers.
The mission’s staff, supported by UNHCR Ukraine – the UN Refugee Agency in Ukraine, found his daughter via social media and arranged a phone call. Her first words, tearfully spoken, were: “Dad, thank God you’re alive!”
Vasyl was provided with a mobile phone and all necessary apps to communicate with his children. A psychologist from “Prolisok” offered him emotional support. He was later given tickets to Zaporizhzhia, where his cousin and her husband, who had also escaped from Shevchenko village by crossing mined fields, were temporarily staying.
Next week, Vasyl will travel to Israel to reunite with his daughter, who is eagerly awaiting him. During a video call with his son, the latter said only one thing: “Dad, I always believed you would survive”.
