Kathrine Frich
War pushes ordinary people into impossible choices, especially the elderly who have the least ability to run.
In occupied towns, even buying food can feel like a life-or-death gamble.
Two Ukrainian pensioners say they only survived by leaving everything behind.
Forced to flee
Anna, 71, and Valentyna, 80, ended up in Lviv after escaping Russian-occupied areas in eastern and southern Ukraine, speaking to the Express from the Hope for Ukraine centre.
Their hometowns were taken soon after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
“War is a terrible thing. It is death, it is tears,” Anna said, describing how Russian soldiers appeared on the streets of Nova Kakhovka and how dangerous it became to step outside.
She said she sometimes needed underground Ukrainian escorts just to get food, and later chose to leave in July 2022 to follow her daughter to safety.
Checkpoints and fear
Anna recalled the journey out as an ordeal through repeated inspections and delays. “We passed 17 checkpoints, spent the night in the field for one night… we slept under the open sky in the field. There were no toilets… There was no water, nothing. People fed us in the field.”
After reaching Zaporizhzhia, she travelled on to Lviv and reunited with her daughter. But she said part of her family remained behind, including her son.
“I have a very painful story,” Anna said. “I [still] have a son there… My heart aches. I don’t know how he is. I don’t know anything about him… My house, my daughter’s house. Everything is ruined.”
Stripping order
Valentyna said she fled Mariupol with her son Eduard in April 2022, leaving with only documents and empty bags.
She said they passed 13 checkpoints to reach Ukrainian-held territory.
At one checkpoint, she said, Russian soldiers forced the men to undress in freezing conditions.
“It was really cold outside and they asked the men to take off everything and leave just their underwear.”
A Hope for Ukraine spokesperson told the Express that such searches were common for men leaving occupied cities, with checks for tattoos, phones and devices, and detentions if anything was deemed suspicious.
Surviving in lviv
Both women now live in a shelter for internally displaced people in Lviv.
“We live here and rejoice. We have clothes, shoes, food,” Valentyna said, adding her pension “never arrives late”.
But she said fear persists even far from the front.
“Alarms are always going off, every day, and every time we are terrified. Our hearts are beating,” she said.
“Because now, we are not living, we are surviving,” Valentyna added. “And that’s a difference.”
Sources: Daily Express, Hope for Ukraine centre.
