Watch: ‘The Cars Right Behind Us Didn’t Make It’: Ukrainian Family Who Fled From Mariupol With Baby
A Ukrainian family who had no choice but to flee the Russian war together with their 10-month-old baby have detailed their horrific escape from their once-home of Mariupol.
Speaking with Lovin Malta in an exclusive interview, the father, Mykyta Olshanskyi, recounted the first few days of the war, when they realised they’d have to abandon their home.
From tanks surrounding their streets to watching their favourite neighbourhoods get destroyed, the family was fearing for the safety of their child, then still at 10 months.
“About two days before our family managed to leave Mariupol, we got unofficial information that a passageway was opened for civilians to be able to leave Mariupol,” he explained.
At the last place they were staying in, the family did not have access to water. Because of this, they had to go down to a nearby stream to get water. One day, bombs were dropped next to the stream, and four people were found dead.
“After our neighbours were shot we were really scared and so we took this opportunity, even though it was dangerous and unsafe for us to do so. We didn’t even know if this passageway was even true or not.”
“We went into the car and started driving towards that direction, it’s about 20 km away but it took us 7 hours to get there because of the huge queues, due to all the people leaving at that moment,” he said.
“There was no opportunity to stop anywhere, it could cost us our lives.”
“Fortunately we managed to go through this hell. Later on, we read in the news that ten cars that were behind us didn’t manage to make it through the shooting and they were killed there,” Olshanskyi said.
“We were really lucky to survive this.”
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