Refugees in Zaporizhia: Saved – but the memories remain

Those who can escape from Mariupol and other places in south-eastern Ukraine end up in Zaporizhia. Here is the central meeting place, hundreds arrive – laden with grief and bitter stories.

There are seven typical city buses organized by the Red Cross. They look a bit run down. As if someone thought that the Russian soldiers would not confiscate such buses.

Tired, serious faces can be seen behind the dirty windows. Old, young, soft, hard faces. Faces of women, children and a few men too, all tired and exhausted from driving through a war zone, from fleeing embattled cities in southern Ukraine like Mariupol.

The destination of the buses is the parking lot of a shopping center on the south-eastern edge of Zaporizhia. Here is the central collection point for refugees from the Russian-controlled areas. The front is about 35 kilometers away from the parking lot. To the south of this front, the Russian army controls Ukrainian land.

Over the past ten days, the Red Cross has repeatedly wanted to send buses from here to Mariupol to take people out of the embattled city who can no longer bear the daily danger to their lives from the constant Russian shelling.

But Putin’s army refuses to allow the Red Cross access. The buses only go to the coastal town of Berdyansk, which is about 40 kilometers southwest of Mariupol.

fled on foot

The people getting off the buses in Zaporizhia have to be registered by the police. An unbureaucratic, quick procedure. For some, the security guards look in their pockets and look at their cell phones. The Ukrainian police are concerned that there could be Russian saboteurs among the refugees.

A couple gets off the bus with an elderly lady. The man introduces himself as Alexandr, his wife’s name is Alla. They don’t want to give a last name. They come from Mariupol, which has been fought over for weeks, he says. On March 20, they left their hometown on foot.

It’s a miracle they survived, says Alexandr. A grenade hit the ceiling of her apartment and broke through a living room wall. His wife, mother-in-law and he were sitting in the hallway and were unharmed.

Alexandr wanted to take his father, who lived in the center of town, with him. On the way there there were street fights between Russian and Ukrainian soldiers. Arrived at the father’s house, they found only burnt rubble. Alexandr believes his father died in the flames.

“Constantly controlled by Russian soldiers”

After leaving Mariupol, they walked into the night and slept at a bus stop. “The next day we continued on foot,” said the 45-year-old. “We constantly had to pass Russian checkpoints, were checked and harassed by Putin’s soldiers. Finally we reached the coastal town of Ursuf.”

They stayed there for ten days in a holiday resort, then walked to Berdyansk, where they boarded the Red Cross bus on April 5. They don’t yet know what’s going to happen now. They want to spend the night in the refugee home in Zaporizhia, then continue to the safer west.

Everyone from Mariupol tells similar stories. Many have lost relatives or friends.

Nothing sounds far-fetched anymore

Lucile Marbeau from the Red Cross accompanied the buses. She says the people are in a mentally and physically miserable state. In the besieged city there is a lack of everything: food, drinking water, electricity, medicines and hygiene articles. It is sorely needed that aid supplies are finally brought there, because many people stayed in basements during the fighting.

But so far the Russian soldiers have stopped Red Cross buses in front of Mariupol. Some refugees say that if you don’t have a car and don’t walk well, you either have to stay in the city or you can take a bus to Russia. In this way, Putin could stylize himself as a humanitarian aid worker and show the whole world how well he takes care of the refugees.

At the same time, however, there is talk of looting Russian soldiers. Radostyna Borovyk works as a volunteer at the collection point. She prepares food for the newcomers and serves coffee. Borovyk has been taking care of those who have arrived here since the beginning of the war, she says.

A group of refugees said that Russian soldiers had told acquaintances in Mariupol that they could come to a certain place on a certain day. The Red Cross buses would also be waiting there. The square was later attacked with grenades: there were many deaths.

Borovyk’s statement cannot be verified, but after the massacre in Bucha near Kyiv or the attack on the Kramatorsk train station, nothing sounds far-fetched anymore.

Many want out – and some in

Suddenly Anthony is standing in the parking lot and, in English with a distinct American accent, asks if anyone knows how he can get to Mariupol. Anthony is in his early twenties, wears khaki clothing and has the Ukrainian flag on the upper arm of his jacket and the Stars and Stripes underneath. He affirms the question of whether he is a “foreign fighter” – that is, a foreigner who takes up arms for Ukraine.

On his cell phone he shows photos of the fighting north of Kyiv in which he took part. Two comrades from the USA are still there to “expel Russians”. However, he promised a Ukrainian soldier that he would get his parents out of Mariupol. That’s his mission now.

Radostyna Borovyk tells Anthony that Ukrainians keep coming to Zaporizhia to shop and then drive them back in convoys to the area controlled by the Russian soldiers. She gives him a phone number. He seems determined. His eyes shine feverishly. He does not want to go into the hint that this is life-threatening.

Some are happy that they were able to escape the Russian attacks, others plunge into battle. Although the central collection point in Zaporizhia is about 200 kilometers from Mariupol, the madness of the Russian war of aggression can already be felt here.