For 8 days, we thought that this was how it would go: a bit more — and Ukraine would win. We could hear explosions and artillery almost continuously. The shelling near our building scared us.

That night, we packed and looked for a car to take us 3 km to the evacuation point. In the morning, we distributed all our supplies to our neighbors, some elderly women.

Suddenly something exploded right outside the very exit, very powerful and close. It was scary to stay put and scary to go out — russian roulette. But we left anyway: two adults and three kids. Three km on foot, under artillery and explosions.

We reached the place where volunteers from the Baptist church were evacuating people. We were lucky because they quickly brought and distributed fuel, which was no longer available in the city.

With explosions all around us, tears in our eyes, we had to split up into different buses. The little kids got into a bus with a window, and older children got into a truck without windows. All the cars were filled with people—everyone who managed to get there.

On the road, our driver warned us that the most critical part was beginning and that he could be «taken out» at any moment… This had apparently happened to drivers more than once. All of Ukraine knows that the green corridors are not really green, but red […].

While we were on our way, we learned, 15 minutes after we left, our building, they had started bombing our street. The buildings caught fire, a roof next door was demolished, our building was left without windows or balconies. Many neighbors were injured, some had very serious injuries, their limbs torn off.

Those 15 minutes saved us!

Olena, Irpin