I've been absent from hive because of the war in my country Ukraine. For the past few days, my days have been marked by me reaching out every hour to enter key words like 'Ukraine' into the search field on Twitter to see if there were any new updates, to see if my city was still safe or if in some rare turn of event, the war had ended abruptly. It never happened.
Photo by Marjan Blan | @marjanblan on Unsplash
The start of the war
On the 24th of February, I received a call by about 6am from my aunt who lives in Fastiv Region. My aunt never calls by this time and I knew it had to be an emergency. Since I'd felt so much unease with the increasing advancement of the Russian army, I intuitively knew that something bad had happened to Ukraine. I didn't pick the call immediately because my heart was pounding. I checked my Twitter account and saw that yes, Kyiv had been attacked. I could not believe it so I had to pause to collect my thoughts before I could call my aunt and boyfriend. The war had finally arrived.
Changed City Life
On the same day, I dressed up to go and withdraw some money. A week to this attack, I knew that with war, we'd be unable to withdraw so much since everyone would want to do that at the same time. Yet, I decided not to withdraw too much because I wanted it to be an act of faith at the time. A statement to say that I was not going to believe in a war occurring. However, only God's will can be done. So, I went to have my bath only to hear an explosion which shook my house. I was scared because I thought it was so close to my street only for me to google to see that it was an airbase 37 mins away from my house. There were targeting military spots like warehouses. After a few mins, I got the courage to go withdraw the money.
On the streets, people were queuing at the ATMS. It was still early but already some ATMS had been emptied out and you could no longer withdraw at just any ATM. It had to be the one provided by your bank. After wasting time at the wrong queue, I trekked to my bank in the cold and managed to withdraw just about 100 dollars. That was the maximum amount each person could withdraw. The war began to feel more real. Also, exchange services were only exchanging to pay out a maximum amount of $40.
Getting Food
I began to panic when I saw that the largest supermarket close to my house was shut. I'd not shopped for a while. I was hungry and began to wonder if this meant starvation already. Just one day into the invasion and we would starve? I calmed down and went to a different store where I saw the first signs of panic buying. People were buying the dry foods like grains and cereal and I felt fear creep even more into my heart.
What Next? Plans to Escape
I had pushed the thought of leaving Ukraine so far from my mind even before the invasion because I thought about my aunt and gran and how I would leave them. My dad in Nigeria was very worried about the situation so I really had a lot to consider. I thought about where I would go to, how I would even go there and it just felt so unclear since I was three hours away from my family and alone in my city. I kept talking to other friends and colleagues at work and I got more clarity about the available options but the one country that stood out the most was Poland. I had been to Poland twice already so I felt it was the more familiar place to escape to.
I did not escape immediately because in my mind I thought Putin would stop after a couple of days. I thought the world would come to our rescue and it would end very soon. I was wrong again. Things only began to get worse and it was clear the US was not going to intrude. Each day I would see people talk about escaping to Poland and how other countries were opening their borders for escape. I talked to my cousin and he decided to come with his his wife and daughter to my city so they could travel with me. We bought his ticket as well only for the government to state that men between the ages of 18 - 60 could no longer leave the country.
The struggle of leaving Ukraine
While I waited for my cousin and his new family to come to my city, I read so many terrible stories of people who had to trek many hours to the Polish border. I felt even more fear because I have suffered from bronchial asthma and I don't see any scenario where walking in winter for 16 hours or more would not result in my death due to health issues. I could not sleep or eat. I would call friends just so I could take my mind off my fear. I prayed psalms 91 and packed two bags. One of them was an essential bag which contained my laptops for work and drawing tablet. The other contained my clothes. I figured if it did come to the trekking part, I could always leave the clothes behind and get new ones in Poland.
My Journey from Vinnitsa, Ukraine
I had doubts in my mind about whether I would actually make it out of my city. I was so surprised when we finally boarded the bus to go to Poland. It felt so unreal and I thanked God in my heart. It was one step in the right direction. My friends were relieved but the journey had only began and I have to say it was very slow. This trip could last for 16hrs on a good day, but because of the traffic from other cars and buses leaving Ukraine, we had to stop for so many hours on the road. I struggled to be positive.
Along the way, we met many kind people who had come to volunteer by bringing food. I could not eat much because there were no guaranteed toilet facilities, we had to pee where and when we could. I slept a lot to kill time and when we were still in the bus 40 hours later, I panicked. I began to wonder if we would be there for five days like a colleague of mine predicted but at the 40th hour we really did cross the Polish border and I could not believe it. It felt so good. From there we began another 6-8hr. journey to Warsaw where my company had booked an apartment for 15 days for me and my cousin's wife and her child. I did not mind this journey much because at least we were out of Ukraine and even though there was a little traffic close to the train station, at least we were close to our destination and safe.
What Next?
I am currently in Warsaw and each day I look at Twitter to see if the war is about to end but so far, it doesn't seem to be getting any closer to ending. I am sad about the state of Ukraine, about how much we would need to rebuild the country when this is finally over.
I also have just 15 days to either register as a refugee in Poland or go to a neighboring country. All these things are issues I need to resolve soon.
The state of the Ukrainian currency is bad. It has fallen so much in the past days. For example, what should have been the equivalent of 200 dollars turned out to be 39 dollars. I had to change it back to UAH because it was not worth it. I pray that things change for the better. My gran and aunt refused to leave so I pray for their sakes too, the war ends soon.
Слава Україна!