Ucieczka z Mariupola

Poniżej angielska transkrypcja całości rozmowy z uciekającą z Mariupola Ukrainką. W „Raporcie o stanie świata” wykorzystano jej 30 minutowy fragment.

Should anything happen …

My name is Tamara (…), I’m from Mariupol, I live at (…) I was a techerat preschool number (….)Whoever knows me, remembers, is alive, I’m also alive and love you all, may God protect you from poverty. We will win. Everything will be fine. Let whoever escapes from this hell be alive and OK. Best wishes to you all.

(Voice from background)  don’t cry, grandma, cheer grandma up, say ba-ba …. Don’t worry … Grandma is crying, cheer grandma up…

[Voice from background] In Ukrainian, mum

If anything were to happen, so it’d be possible for someone to do something. So that you wouldn’t need to look through my phone, but straight away, should a stranger find me. Just in case they’d … they’d kill me. That is why we always had phones with us. I had my ID card and family phone numbers on me at all times so that, if something were to happen, they could find my body straight away and tell where I was and what happened. They said to always have them with you. Phone, ID card, documents, always on you. Here, in your pocket or here, on a piece of string. And that’s how we’d run for water, because there was no running water. On February 24 they shot at us, they started shelling us, and on the 28^th, there was no electricity, water, gas or heating anymore. On 24^th February I sent my daughter to Zaporozhye, and then to Uzhgorod, and I stayed to collect all the documents and then go to pass them on to her so that the children could start over in Uzhgorod, in preschool, at school, in this new place.

Mariupol, miejsca gdzie mieszkała Tamara i jej teściowa Luba. Na czerwono zaznaczono mieszkanie babci Luby.

[TC: 01:45] Your attention

[02:00] On February 24, the shelling began. I was meant to go to work because I’m a preschool teacher, but already it was impossible to go to work. Firing at civilians had started. I couldn’t get to work. I came home, started getting things together, because they called me and said that there was no work, you have to leave. Me and my mother-in-law, my family came, they took us and we went to another part of the city. Our family took us in, and we were living with them and then she asked me: why didn’t you tell me anything, that we had to run away. You just have to run away. We thought they’d shoot and then there’d be silence as always. But it didn’t stop there and every day there were more, more, more bomb hits. Then the planes began to fly, and they, too, dropped bombs.

At the beginning, we hid in the basement, they have their own workshop, a small house. We hid in the outside basement. Then, a missile flew to the neighbour’s yard, broke up and fragments hit the roof of our building. We almost couldn’t get the door closed because of the shock wave. We managed to get it closed and hid in the corridor, and then we didn’t go to the basement anymore. Then we thought that if we were to die, we would do so here at inside the house. Maybe someone would find us sooner than if we were in this basement. Because there was a garage above us, and there was a car there, and there could be so much debris that no one would ever find us later. Inside the house at least someone would maybe check and find us. 

[4:10] or as long as there was still electricity there, because in my suburb or Schidnyj, there was no electricity anymore, the gas was still on because I went home on the 26th and that’s when the military hit really started. It was very hard to get home, because there was no transport. Just 3 days and there was already no public transport. Friends who were alive called and we agreed that I would go to home, to Schidnyj, I had two cats there and I had to bring them food because I couldn’t take them with me and I had to leave the keys so that someone would take care and sit with them. .. I arrived, no electricity, no heating, no water, but the gas was still on. Before I went to the eighth floor, the cats came to meet me, they were scared, simply scared. They were look at me and didn’t understand what was happening and why there was no one with them. Cats, animals. Cat, meow, meow, there were two left.

[5:54] I stayed at home, there’s no electricity, I had to take all the food out so it wouldn’t  go to waste. I was packing my bag and I was thinking how I would get to my family because they were waiting for me. Somehow I’d got here, but no one was leaving here. Who could, had already left. The few people who were still there, were searching for somewhere to buy some food.  Some shops were open when I arrived, but there were no products. They were looking for water, bread. The elderly had stayed behind. There were very few young people. But you know how it is. It’s your home and it’s awful to leave it. We’ll somehow get through it, maybe it’ll be alright, maybe it will be better. Then I came home, packed my things and thought how I was going to get back to my family. I can’t get out of here, there’s no transport, nothing, people are terrified. The dark faces of scared people. Everyone is looking at you, friends are asking, you have you seen this person, have you seen that person, where are they? I don’t know, I haven’t seen anyone. I don’t know where anyone is. Then my granddaughter called, she says … My phone didn’t have any service, but my neighbours from downstairs, they came to me and said: Toma [Tamara – pp], Sofa called and she said for you not to go anywhere, a car will come and get you. There were also volunteers who were taking people from the left bank, from the East bank, to the centre, wherever they needed to be. I went home, I gave the animals food, I poured water, more than usual. In each room, I left them dry cat food, water, I left a bucket of water so they’d have enough to eat. I left the keys with a neighbour who says: I will be here, I’m not going anywhere.  So take care of animals, and if it becomes too difficult, I won’t be able to do anything, let them outside, maybe they’ll have a chance to survive. Yes… 

[08:22] Question: What are the cats’ names?

Bona and Sima. Two of them. Then I think to myself that if I couldn’t leave, and the gas was still on, then you could still eat. War is war, but you still need to eat. I opened the window, I thought to myself that if it all falls down then everything would still be ok. I opened the window and near the window, there was a huge hit, the building shook so badly. I think to myself: there are hits, and it may all collapse, but everything was ok, and the gas was on, I made myself scrambled eggs, you have to eat, because I thought that if I were to stay overnight, I wouldn’t be able to leave, I’d have to do something. I’ll get the blanket, the cats will be there, we’ll keep each other warm, then they called to say that there would be a car and I should leave in 10 minutes. I closed the window, the neighbor helped me down. Volunteers came and took me away. As we were driving from the left bank to the other side, to the city center, we were shot at. Thought that the car wouldn’t get us out, but it did.

[09:45] They brought me home, and I ask the boys how much do I owe you, and they say: you don’t owe us anything but if there are any blankets, quilts, pillows. If you had told me, I would have given you everything there. But nothing I could do, I gave them some money, they said it was for food. I came to my family afterwards and they say: You’re finally back, thank God, we thought you’d never come. And that’s how our blockade began.

That was February 26, and on March 2, they turned off the electricity, heating and everything. It’s good that the weather worsened, frost, snow, we started in the morning, before they started shooting, every day there was more and more bam, bam, bang, planes flying, bombs dropping, rockets, mortars and it’s all shooting and flying. There was still one grocery store open in this district, because you had to buy products. Under fire, we ran to the store, a million people there, huge queues, they were taking goods. Everything was practically gone, people were taking potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage, honey, cookies, the bread was all gone. What we had we stretched and saved.

When the weather was bad, and when they weren’t shooting, we collected snow in the morning so that it would melt and that we could wash the dishes, wash the toilet, and we had a supply of drinking water. It was frosty and the cisterns were frozen so there was only what had melted. Frost, it was also cold in the house, that nothing melted.

And that’s how we lived for a little bit. It’s good that before that we’d bought some wood and chopped trees, and the family had a fireplace in the house. In the morning, if they weren’t shooting too much, we lit the fireplace to warm up a bit, heat the water, cook potatoes, you could only cook soup in the fireplace. There were 9 people in our home, 3 of whom were sick, very sick, two were recovering from cancer and one had had a stroke. Three sick people who had to be fed first, taken care of, someone had to be given medicine, someone else needed an injection. They had to be fed according to a plan. There were 6 women and 3 men. And somehow we lived.

[13:45] It was absolutely awful that the phones didn’t work. It wasn’t even about the food, because you could drink some water, warm yourself, put on 6 sweaters, a jacket, sweatshirt, pants, socks, shoes. Sleep, we didn’t really sleep at all anymore because there was always something to prepare on the fireplace before the shooting started, and then that was it. And we waited, waited, they pounded and pounded, we went out into the corridor, we all sat. There were 2 women with us, they were 74 and 67 years old. They hid in the bathroom, put a blanket there and hid. And we waited on the benches in the corridor. The pounding would finish and it got quieter. We’d wait an hour or two, and then what? We’d go to sleep a little? So we go, we go to bed, and again bam!Bam! Bam!And so again, we get up and go again? We stay in bed. Because it’s already very bad and we were just so incredibly tired. There was such exhaustion. And then airplanes started flying and dropping bombs more often. And there are no phones. And you hear: shhhhh … there’s a plane flying and it starts bam, bam, bam. The bombs were falling. And we had no contact with anyone. We didn’t know what was happening in the country, nobody went outside. Just to chop woodwhile it was still calm and then getting back as fast as possible. And then we remembered that the family had a small battery-operated radio, we found it and the Khreschatyk 26 station [this is the address of the Kiev public radio – pp], which was on 24 hours a day. They talked about what was happening in Ukraine, Mariupol, and the whole country. And then we found out that our city is surrounded, you can neither leave nor enter, a humanitarian catastrophe. The Russians began bombing the maternity hospital where there were children, mothers, and pregnant women. And there was a sign that said „Children” and yet theybombed this hospital. 

[17:07] Many houses and huts where civilians were living were destroyed. We went to bed and wondered if we would get up alive or if we would justbe found inour beds. Then we found out that where I used to live, Russian troops had entered the Schidnyj district and began deporting people to Russia. They forced them. They were forcibly taking people away. Then we waited a long time, we hoped that there would be a humanitarian corridor. We were told on the radio, wait, wait, don’t listen to anyone, there will be a green humanitarian corridor, you will be able to leave Mariupol. We were waiting, 3 humanitarian convoys were leaving Zaporozhye and none of them reached us. It was only on the fifth day that we found out that the humanitarian convoy left Zaporozhye and was stopped in Berdyansk and they did not let it go on. Then we heard on the radio that there was a mosque in our neighborhood, Muslims, and they hit the mosque with bombs. There were many Muslims hiding there. They had asked the President of Turkey to help them leave: they are bombarding us. And then, all of this lasted 3 weeks. Three weeks. And when it was really bad, we made a decision that we would try to leave because it was difficult to stay. Planes were flying every minute, a constant hum, shhhh … and bombs. We decided that there was nothing to wait for: the bread, there were dry biscuits left, the water wasrunning out, it’s an awful feeling to run under fire to the well because you knew you could go there but you might not come back.

[19:55] We decided that we would try to leave. I went out on the road to see if there were any cars driving through. There were no cars. I saw that there were 6 civilian cars without windows, covered with foil, sealed with self-adhesive tape and with a sign‘children’ and white flags, cloths on the cars. And they were going there where it was still possible, as we understood, to somehow leave.

I asked, there were men standing, they had also gone out to fetch water, and I said: please tell me, are people leaving or not, is there anybody still alive here? And they say: yes, 8 cars passed and nobody came back, 6 cars passed and nobody came back. Before that, we found out that 150 cars bad left Mariupol. We thought maybe the Muslims had left. We think so. I think that if people managed to leave, we could also leave. We made a decision, what is the difference where we were to die, if there is even a small sliver of a chance, if they were to kill us here or there, but maybe we would break through and get home, to our children, wherever we could, to Ukraine. And the next day, a plane flew all night and bombed the city, it just dropped bombs. And we just lay there and counted, we didn’t get out of bed anymore, we just counted. It fell there, and it fell there, and there it fell. And the next one will fall on you or it will fall further away and you’ll be lucky. When we got up at 4 in the morning, we decided to try to leave somehow, because we didn’t have the strength to stay where we were. Medicationsfor our ill were running out, water was running out, food and bread was running out, so we made a decision that we had to leave somehow. I went out on the road in the centre, saw that there were cars coming. I ask people: have the cars gone, and they say: yes, they’ve gone. And a lot of cars. I ran home and said: come on faster, there are cars coming. If there are cars, there will be a convoy of cars and we will not be alone. It will be faster to break through.

[23:00] In 10 minutes we put together all our things, the most important medicines, warm clothes, water, and left. They started bombing. Under a hail of bullets, under missiles, we attempted to leave. Some people were still staying, my neighbours were saying: we’re staying, we’re not going anywhere, if we’re to die, then right here at home. We left, a man with a serious illness was behind the wheel, he had run out of medicines and he couldn’t sit for a long time. But he was our hero, the one who took us away, he was at the wheel for 12 hours, he was getting us out of Mariupol.

There was one road out and our soldiers motioned for us to go slowly, 5 centimetres from us there was a mine and they said to go around it very slowly. We drove in a column of 4,000 cars. With children. This was written on all of them: children, children, children. White towels, white rags, anything they had found was tied to the cars, which they had found. We just kept driving. Somehow we got out but it was very hard. The area pastMariupol, when we drove through Mariupol, on and on. Russian troops were already stationed there. This was the first, and we had to go to Zaporizhia. There, we could go further and receive help. We were very scared that there would be a curfew at six in the evening. We were afraid that we would stop in the field and they would simply shoot us. In the middle of nowhere … and nobody would ever even know where we had died.

[25:20] But before we got to the place where first there were Russian troops, then Ukrainian. There were 5 Russian checkpoints where they checked documents. There were Chechens at the  first one. Documents, documents, papers, but they didn’t shoot. We looked at them, but you couldn’t look him in the eye because he could take the machine gun and shoot you. They’d think nothing of it. They were all drunk or drugged up because a normal person wouldn’t act like that. He looks at you, sees a column of 4,000 cars driving, frightened people in cars, scared children, and he looks and smiles. And he does not understand why we are running away: why are you running away, we are not shooting, why are you running away. Why are you running away.

[26:42] Before we got to Wasyliwka, there were 5 checkpoints. They were Chechens, Russians, and we called them the Makhnovists, they were drunk, we named them the Makhnovists, and there was a machine gun facing the road. We didn’t know what he was going to think of doing.

Then we drove on and it was already getting dark. We understood that we wouldn’t be in a safe place by curfew. People were travelling in fear and risk. When we crossed the territory occupied by the Russian Federation, they’re animals, monsters, cars have Z written on them, A like Animals (the word for animal in Ukranian starts with Z – ep). People don’t do suchthings, these are monsters. When we arrived in the territory that was Ukrainian, the boys let us pass, they knew that we were coming from Mariupol and that the convoy from Mariupol was coming, and they said: go yes and yes. It was dark, stopping wasn’t an option…

[28:05] Then we heard on the radio that they had agreed to a green corridor that allowed us to leave Mariupol that day and there was an agreement that they would not shoot. It was a miracle how we managed to come across exactly on this date. It was a miracle. We got to Zaporozhye, it was eight o’clock, it was already dark, our soldiers said: turn off the lights, drive only on front side lights.

[28:45] Our column, 4,000 cars, we had to take the bypass ring road, and you couldn’t even call it a road there, but a  path in a field. The bombarding had ignited the rushes. There was a fire. And so we drove along this path through dangerous places, and then we stopped in the middle of this field, we could not move, neither this way nor that way. The convoy couldn’t move. And the rushes are on fire. And we’re thinking … there are tons of cars and nobody is going anywhere. Our driver says, our hero, Serhiy, says: the wind is not blowing in our direction, God is helping us, the wind is going the other way, the fire is not going towards us. And then slowly, slowly we started to move.

Then we got lost, it’s dark, the lights are out, and the bends were so tricky and we got lost. 4 cars were left and the rest went somewhere. We were very scared. We don’t know where to go, what to do, we started to turn back. We are going, and there are mines, signs saying there are mines, the road is closed, you cannot go on. We turned back,  and drove back to the station. And our boys are standing there and telling us to run away, go on, do not shine the headlights, go, they showed us which way to go, we left and near Zaporozhye  we met some policemen and they helped us to get to Zaporozhye.

There’s an admission point there and they say they’d waiting for us, we are waiting for you two days already. We came and they put us in the Epicenter, it’s a huge store [usually a huge hardware building and construction superstore – pp], they signed us in,  then gave us a drink and said there were buses waiting for us, they registered us, put us in the buses and drove us to Zaporozhye. They put us in a preschool. There were many children there and they welcomed us. They had a huge hall, this was a new preschool in Zaporizhia, there were several places and we ended up at this one. They welcomed us, signed us in, put us indormitory rooms, spread out mattresses, pillows, gave us blankets, sandwiches and water. And they signed us in. And we crashed, we didn’t even want to wash at that stage, we didn’t want anything, it was already midnight. We collapsed as we were. There was silence. They turned off the light, and also the blackout blinds, but the most important thing was the silence. We were just standing there and saying: praise the Lord, we managed to get away from Mariupol, alive.

[32:30] We were in Zaporozhye until the morning, but at 3:50 or 3:40 we heard a crash! A bomb. We all jumped, everyone in the room, there were what, 22 people. What?! Nothing. It was next door. And crash, we all fell asleep again, children, everyone. Then in the morning we got up at 7:00, they gave us food, hot soup with bread and hot tea. It was very tasty. And we went to our buses, they drove us back to the Epicenter, we took our cars and drove to Dnipropetrovsk [now officially speaking the Dnieper – pp]. We stayed with friends there, our friends from Kiev and Bucha came because our driver Serhiy could not go any more. It was already bad with him, very bad. And we waited, the boys told us to wait because they would leave Bucha, and then they would help us get to western Ukraine, and then to the border with Poland. They came, we ask how are you, and they say: what can we say, Bucza is no more, we live in Kiev, they’re shoot at Kiev, they bombed and shot atBucha, they demolished the city. How did you get out, children, women? He says there was a tiny corridor under bombing and underfire, we left Bucha.

[34:12] It was also difficult, but people made it, and the one who managed it later ended up in Poland. And they helped us. We spent the night in Dnepropetrovsk and the next day we left at 8 am and at 8 pm we were near Równe. We travelled 800 kilometers in 12 hours. The boys rushed, they drove us because they understood that we had to go as fast as possible. The drugs were finished, our friends had no more injections, and decisions had to be made as soon as possible. We travelled 800 kilometers and didn’t get Równe, itself. We stayed at a hotel, they gave us rooms, we were so glad we couldtake a bath, warm water, warm food, light, warmth, we took a bath and it was something extraordinary, a celebration, warmth. Then in the morning we got up and went to Łuck, and then to the border with Poland. It took another 200 kilometers to get to the border. Our boys brought us there, said goodbye to us and went back to Kiev to help people who still needed help. They are heroes, they were not afraid, and didn’t let us down. Everything will be fine.

[36:10] Yesterday we passed the border control on the Polish border. They let us through without any problems, very quickly, we passed the inspection and within 2 hours and we found ourselves in Poland. We didn’t know where to go next, we knew that my daughter was in Katowice, but it was still 600 kilometers from the border. We didn’t know how to get there, they said you had to drive 5 hours from the border to Katowice.

People heard that we were from Mariupol and we told them how we lived, that it was true that they bombarded us, kill people, kill civilians, destroy neighborhoods, houses, schools and preschools. They kill, shoot, bomb. This is how it is. [here she switches to Russian – pp] That’s true. This is not a figment of anyone’s imagination. It is the Russian Federation that is destroying the Ukrainian population. The Ukrainian nation. They destroy cities, they destroy houses, they destroy old people, children, it is true, not an invention. People heard at the border where we came from and one man said that he was a volunteer and that he would take us to one person, a Pole, Bogdan, he would take us to Katowice, please relax. He took us to Wirkowice, there we changed to another car and Bogdan took us to Katowice. We were very scared because lots of things can happen. [here she goes back to Ukrainian -pp] Lots of bad people, but Bogdan said don’t worry, everything will be fine. And we went to Katowice. On the way, he asked us if we wanted coffee, tea or something to eat. I said no, that we haven’t seen the children for 3 weeks, the children have not seen us, and the grandchildren have not seen us. They knew we were alive, that we got out of there. I say: no, I want to get there as soon as possible, embrace the children and say that we will be together and everything will be fine.

[39:00] We were driving and we came to Katowice. God give volunteers strength and patience. When we arrived at Plac Sejmu Slaskiego  where my children were, they came out to meet us. And we embraced and cried, we are alive, they are alive, we are together.

I would like to thank Bogdan very much that there are volunteers like him who help us in this difficult time. They help with whatever they can, they feed, they just look in the eyes and smile and that’s enough, we don’t need much. We understand that we have left our homeland, our native Ukraine, and have become homeless. We don’t have a house, then we found out that convoys were leaving for Mariupolto get us, but they were shot at. Children and women died. People who got out after us say they were boy-aces. They were bombarding the convoy and these guys zigzagged so that the missiles would not hit them. Who managed, left, and who didn’t… they stayed there.

[41:00] We are very grateful to Poland that welcomed us. People who met us. That we went through it all, it’s very hard to understand that your friends stayed in Mariupol and you don’t know where they are, whether they are alive, or what happened to them. Those who remained were forcibly taken to Russia, we were told. And then the marauding, bombing and destruction of the city began. I don’t know, I don’t understand what all this is for and it’s very hard to understand the people of Mariupol. They hid people in common graves, dug a ditch and if someone did not have documents, things happen you know, they just buried them in the ditch, they made a common grave. It’s not that I’m making this up from nowhere, that’s what my friends who were also leaving Mariupol said. Because in Zaporozhye we met with people from Mariupol, from all corners of Mariupol, and they told these terrible things that when a bullet hit someone, people just covered the body, and then when it was quiet, they buried them in the yard where they were found so as not to carry the bodies far.

[42:50] And that’s why we don’t know how many people are left there now. The elderly stayed behind, the sick who couldn’t walk, the ones who were not able to find a car, were not able to leave and therefore … I don’t know … maybe they will stay in Mariupol that way.

When we left Mariupol, we found out that the Dramatic Theater, where over a thousand people were hiding in the shelter, was bombed. The shelter was old and withstood the bombing, the Dramatic Theater fell apart, and there were people in the shelter asking: stop shooting, help us get people out of the rubble. They stayed there for over 24 hours in the shelter. The shelter was good and the people stayed alive. And then we found out that they had been saved, but they didn’t manage to leave. That is why there aren’t many of those who stayed in Mariupol. I just don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t understand why they’d murder civilians, bomb preschools, schools, cinemas, a maternity hospital, the Dramatic Theater. What for? For what? For what? They will say … Putin said they are setting us free. But from what? From me, from my family? The job I love? Kids? What for? It just doesn’t make sense. What’s it for? We are not losing hope that our Ukraine will win, no other option is possible.

[45:00] It is very difficult for them, the soldiers who are standing there. If the skies over Ukraine were closed, these rockets and planes would not be flying. Submarines shooting atLviv from Odessa and ruiningLviv, ruining cities and villages of Ukraine, and kill civilians, would not be firing.

I am very grateful to Poland that the country accepted us and that we can stay here in peace and see the sky where planes do not fly and do not ruin cities. You can’t hear any bombs, any rockets or sirens. And that I and my family remained alive, and the people who stayed in Mariupol, friends who we do not know, where they are and what’s happened to them, whether they’realive or not, and whether they could have got out or not, where they went, how they left. It’s hard, it’s hard if you don’t know where your friends are, where your family is. I want to say that they are all alive, that everything is fine, that Ukraine prevails. It cannot be otherwise. And everything will be fine.

[47:00] many don’t believe us that something like this could even be true, but it is, we went through it, we saw it, we managed to stay alive, and it’s a miracle that it happened. I am very sorry that my city, Mariupol, is not there anymore, that my beloved job is not there, the children with whom I worked, there aren’t many friends left either. That they deprived us of a peaceful sky, a bright sky, homes, houses.

I hope that everything will be fine and when the monstrous war that Putin is waging will end and the bombs are falling on our people, on Ukraine, then our Ukraine will be reborn and we will win. It cannot be otherwise. Then we will rebuild our city and it will be even prettier and better, and these animals, Russian soldiers, who are carrying out murderous orders, to kill civilians, will be punished. In this world and in the other their families will be cursed, and those saying nothing terrible is happening, take the TVs, take everything, ruin everything, like it’s nothing terrible. We heard it on TV and radio, prisoners of war, conversations with their families, how they talk. They either do not understand or do not want to understand that there is a war going on, they are killing civilians, old people, children, women.

And back there in Mariupol, maybe it’s not there anymore, although I hope there is something left, that people will still be able to live there, that there’s someone still alive there. I really hope so. I am very happy that my family left for Poland and my grandchildren did not hear the horror we went through. Everything will be fine.

[51:10] don’t cry, grandma, cheer grandma up, say ba-ba …. Don’t worry … Grandma is crying, cheer grandma up…

***

Piotr Pogorzelski – tłumaczenie z ukraińskiego
Ewa Piotrowska – tłumaczenie na angielski
Artur Giordiano – autor muzyki
Podziękowania dla Rodziny, która przyjęła i nadal gości rodzinę z Mariupola.