Ten kilometers in slippers
98-year-old Ukrainian woman escapes the Russians on foot
May 1, 2024, 3:17 p.m
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The Russian army is gradually advancing into some regions of Ukraine. When Otscheretyne becomes a target, Lidia Stepaniwna Lomikowska and her family decide to flee. The 98-year-old is fighting alone. Now she can hope for special accommodation.
A 98-year-old Ukrainian woman fled Russian-occupied territory with a walking stick and slippers. She and her family decided to flee Ocheretyne in the Donetsk region after invading forces entered the city last week and fighting intensified, Lidia Stepanivna Lomikowska reported after reaching Ukrainian-controlled territory in a statement released by the National Police distributed video.
In the chaos of the escape, she was separated from her son and her two daughters-in-law. While her relatives took side roads, she continued on the main road.
With a stick in one hand and a splintered piece of wood in the other, she walked ten kilometers all day toward the Ukrainian lines without food or drink, Lomikowska reported. She fell twice. “Once I lost my balance and fell into the weeds. I slept a little and then continued on my way. And then – for the second time – I fell again. But then I got up and thought to myself: ‘I have to keep going, little by little Piece,'” reported the old woman.
Already survived the Second World War
Lomikowska was finally rescued by soldiers who discovered her on the street that evening, said the spokesman for the national police in Donetsk, Pavlo Diatschenko. They handed them over to a police unit called the White Angels, which evacuated civilians from the front lines. They then contacted Lomikowska’s family.
The 98-year-old said she had already survived the Second World War. “Now I had to go through this war too and in the end I’m left with nothing,” she said. Back then she didn’t see any house burning, but now everything is in flames.
The director of one of Ukraine’s largest banks heard the story. “Monobank will buy Lidia Stepanivna a house and she will live in it safely until this abomination disappears from our country,” Oleh Horokhovskyi promised.