Chilling video shows Angelina Jolie rushed to bomb shelter in Kyiv amid air-raid sirens
While on a visit to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, Angelina Jolie was evacuated to safety amid fears of an impending rocket strike. Footage showing Jolie, 46, strolling briskly with an escort while an air raid siren sound garnered attention. A female group member turned to the camera and begged, "Please, no more," as the group walked away to safety. When asked whether she was okay, the actress waved to the camera and said, "I'm okay."
For several years, Jolie has served as a special envoy for the United Nations Refugee Agency, but the details of her travel to Ukraine remain unknown. Maya Pidhorodetska, a Ukrainian, had earlier shared another footage of the famed actress and filmmaker on Facebook. "Nothing special. Just Lviv. I just went to have coffee. Just Angelina Jolie," she wrote. The Russian army has been attacking Lviv in recent weeks, and a missile strike on the city in early April killed several people. Jolie was shown in Pidhorodetska's video joyfully conversing with residents in Lviv while dressed casually. As the Russian military assembled in the east of the nation for a second attack, fans spotted Jolie in the Ukrainian city and welcomed her. Footage shows her signing autographs for admirers and conversing with a number of locals.
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Maksym Kozytskyy, the regional governor of Lviv, said Jolie, who has been a UNHCR Special Envoy for Refugees since 2011, has come to talk with evacuees, who have sought safety in Lviv, including children injured in the missile strike on the Kramatorsk railway station in early April.
At least 52 people were killed and scores more were injured in the attack in the eastern Ukrainian city, which looked to be intentionally targeted at a throng of largely women and children seeking to avoid a coming Russian onslaught. "She was very moved by (the children´s) stories," Kozytskyy wrote. "One girl was even able to privately tell Ms Jolie about a dream she'd had." He said that Jolie visited a boarding school, spoke with children, and took photographs with them and that she "promised" to return.
According to Kozytskyy, Jolie also visited with evacuees at Lviv's major train station, as well as Ukrainian volunteers who were offering medical assistance and counseling to the refugees.“The visit was a surprise to us all,” he wrote, adding “Plenty of people who saw Ms. Jolie in the Lviv region could not believe that it was really her. But since Feb. 24, Ukraine has shown the entire world that there are plenty of incredible things here.”