Olga's firsthand account of the war in Ukraine, part 2

Olga is offering a glimpse into life in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022. The article last week left Olga at work in Ivano-Frankvisk in West Ukraine. She had just read on social media that Kiev was being bombed. Her dad and brother had left there an hour before to join her 340 miles further west. Olga has asked her family’s last name not be printed for security reasons. Twenty years ago Olga had received a scholarship to study in the U.S. There she met Steve and Jan Paul of Shelter Bay. These quotes and summaries are from emails Olga sends when the Internet is available.

Olga, her father, brother, mother and two very ill grandmothers were together briefly in western Ukraine, but as soon as the bombing started, they fled in different directions again and again in trying to escape the bombing. Olga’s grandmother stayed with her.

“I woke grandma and told her war had started. I gave her medications and told her to get ready because I did not know what to do. She walks extremely slow. I am 110 pounds and I can’t physically carry her.”

Olga’s grandmother could not handle stairs without her help.

“Walking up and down took forever. Helping her use the bathroom was trouble because of other people – she needs to use it often. She couldn’t run and I couldn’t leave her if a bomb dropped nearby.

“I took her, brought her to the shelter, which was basically the basement of an apartment building where a friend lived. And that’s where we stayed day and night observing news and horrors.”

Realizing she could not move her grandma if a bomb landed nearby, she packed again and fled to her mother’s location. Her dad and brother headed there as well.

“I assumed further west in the countryside would be safer than in the city. New explosions were happening as I was leaving town. Friends started leaving the country – I couldn’t because of family.

“The week I was in the countryside, I started thinking I have to get back to work. No one else in the family could return to work. My Dad’s job was in Kiev; they couldn’t go back it was too dangerous. They couldn’t leave because the other grandmothers needed care.

“I went back to the city and moved in with my boyfriend. It was more scary than in the countryside. In the countryside you can hardly hear sirens but in the city it’s so loud.

“We ran outside, then to hallways near elevators, spending hours there, sleeping next to the wall. Later we would spend siren hours in the bathroom sitting on the floor where it was safer than by a window.

“There are more chances to survive if something hits the first wall then goes through another one and if you are behind the third wall .... more chances.

“If a bomb falls from above nothing will help.

“If siren would go on during work, we would text that we have alert and leave for the shelter.

“Then blackouts were added. It became impossible to work.

“People who worked for large companies kept their jobs, because larger companies could buy power generators.

“There was very little electricity all winter which included Internet service.

“During the few hours that there was electricity everyone tried to clean, cook, work, and do laundry.

“An alert woke us up between 3 and 4 a.m. We went to the shelter.

“The alert lasted two hours. As soon as I undressed and thought finally I will get some sleep. I sat on a bed and next moment there was huge explosion and we saw smoke in the sky, so we ran out of the buildings again.

“We just sat there for hours in the middle of the night, dressed, packed and ready to run … no light, no heat and no hot water. And it goes on and on for hours … all winter was like that. It was exhausting.”

To be continued.