EXCLUSIVE | Kyiv man on horror of leaving family behind: 'Nothing left of normal life'
Dmytro Zlenko was asleep on the morning of February 24 when he heard remote noises that sounded like explosions. Tired and heavy-eyed, he thought it was too early for thunder in Kyiv. "It was only after my dad woke me up that I realized what was happening," Dmytro said. “The war had started.”
Ukraine is in tatters. Putin has now sunk to a new low after Russia bombed a maternity and children's hospital in the city of Mariupol as part of an airstrike. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack a war crime and said that a number of people were trapped under the wreckage. At least three people died in the attack.
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"The morning of February 24 changed everything. The news was becoming more and more dreadful in February. The war was approaching. Fear. Stress. Anxiety. That is how February looked like to any Ukrainian. However, news always makes noise but it does not necessarily mean people would flee in panic, so it wasn't possible for everyone to be prepared with essentials in case there was an emergency and they had to immediately leave," Dmytro told MEAWW.
"To be honest, I woke up that morning and grabbed a coffee. No tanks were around and no airstrikes took place nearby, so my routine cup of coffee was exactly what I needed to pull my thoughts together," Dmytro said. "However, within a few hours, I had everything packed. I kept my passport, keys, and money safely in my pockets. The seriousness of the situation was dawning upon us."
"Weeks earlier, my family and I discussed our plans in case a war broke out. The plan was that I would go west to keep working remotely, and my parents with my Grandma would go to a village house away from Kyiv. We sat down for lunch, went over the plan once again, and with a heavy heart, I went to the Kyiv rail station. No tickets, no reservation, I walked straight to the first train west. I had no clear plan but a clear belief that everything will work out well," he added.
The war is now at a deadly stage. The White House has warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could use chemical or biological weapons in an escalation of his attack on Ukraine. NATO has claimed that Moscow could possibly be targeting civilians trying to flee Ukraine as part of Putin's reign of terror. On Tuesday, March 8, a convoy of buses packed with people fleeing the war was struck, with 21 people, including two children, losing their lives, Ukrainian authorities said. Thousands of people, including civilians and soldiers, are thought to have been killed.
In one of the most recent cases of atrocities against civilians in Ukraine, a chilling video captured the moment when a Russian ‘special peacekeeping’ tank blew up a car in a completely unprovoked attack. An elderly civilian couple was killed inside the car in the attack. A clip doing the rounds on social media shows a car moving into the frame before halting as a Kremlin tank fires on the vehicle twice, blowing it into pieces.
Dmytro's grandmother moved to Kyiv in 1943 and since then his family has lived there. He studied Environmental Sciences in five different universities across many countries while traveling at the same time. The 27-year-old now works remotely in the IT sector and getting back to the environmental field is on his road map.
"In the train, there were conversations, snacks, tea, and new acquaintances," Dmytro recalled. "I honestly thought I would have to bribe a train conductor to have a ticket-less ride. However, the conductor simply collected a standard fare and gave us a receipt."
"A young girl next to me had a Polaroid camera. She took a picture of each of us, people who got to know each other as they left their loved ones behind," Dmytro said. "We discussed how strange it was to have this ride not knowing when and if one can come back. This little Polaroid image I have from that ride carries some extra value because we didn’t exchange any contacts with that girl. No Facebook, no WhatsApp, only a little card and a memory."
Russian President Vladimir Putin could reportedly be deploying one of the deadliest weapons and is also considering nuclear options. Putin deployed a terrifying rocket system onto the battlefield after three days of defense by Ukrainian forces. In footage verified by CNN, the Russian army was seen moving TOS-1 Buratino rockets towards the front line. Meanwhile, Putin reportedly also ordered the military command to put nuclear deterrence forces on high alert following aggressive statements by NATO countries.
"I’m still in Ukraine, in safety. I am in touch with people and the Internet connectivity seems fine. Shortage of electricity and bad Internet connectivity are only plaguing areas of intense combat," Dmytro said.
"My story could have ended here, but it doesn't. Happy endings are not so easy. At this moment, I am not in an area where rockets are flying or where bombs can be heard. However, a significant part of my family is still in Kyiv, where air raids sirens sound multiple times a day. I’ve heard various stories from my close ones, of them seeing an airplane in the sky launching rockets. They observed ruins caused by airstrikes. Some of them were forced to flee," Dmytro said. "
"Being away from one's family, knowing how terribly uncertain life is, is a miserable feeling," Dmytro said. "Dead occupants' pictures in a Telegram news channel, buildings destroyed where I've walked just a few days ago, and nothing left of the 'normal life' -- the feeling is indescribable. It's all gone. Helicopters crash, people are shooting tanks with anti-tank weapons, and thousands of civilians are dying. The scars of this war for the families of people who died can't be healed. Families are ruined. The ten-floor apartment building where my family and I have lived was among the first in Kyiv to be hit. A leftover from an airplane damaged a decent part of the building. This is not a movie, this is happening in 2022. How many more lives should it take for NATO to close the sky over Ukraine?"
Russians are mercilessly killing men and women, children and the elderly. A Ukrainian mother was gunned down by Russian troops along with her two children in a Kyiv suburb on Sunday, March 6, as they were fleeing Irpin. Tatiana Perebeinis, an IT worker, had not fled sooner as she was caring for her ailing mother. Perebeinis, 43, and her two children, Alise, 9, and Nikita, 18, were killed alongside a man they were traveling with when Russian forces indiscriminately fired at them. The family also lost one of their dogs, while the other was found alive at a local shelter with an amputated leg. Perebeinis and her two kids are survived by her husband, identified as Sergey Perebeinis.
In another instance, a Ukrainian woman was gunned down just outside Kyiv while she was on her way back from a dog shelter where she went to deliver food. According to Anastasiia Yalanskaya’s family and friends, Russian troops may have deliberately targeted her vehicle at close-range. Riddled with bullets, Yalanskaya’s car was found near the house of a man she was volunteering with.
Just days ago, a Ukrainian schoolgirl was gunned down by Russian saboteurs in her family car alongside her parents, local reports have claimed. Polina was a 4th-grade girl from Kyiv and was with her family and two siblings in their car when it came under fire from a Russian sabotage and reconnaissance group.
"What's in minds of Russians? We're attacked by Russians, so we must know on what ground they're standing. With that question, I called a Russian friend from whom I had not heard since the beginning of the war. To my question, I received an apathetic answer: "Many people, many opinions. I refrain from speaking on this topic."
"There is nothing wrong in staying out of politics, nothing wrong in not knowing what's going on, and nothing wrong in staying away from pressing issues. However, when you hear explosions, hide in a bomb shelter for hours, and leave your belongings behind with a clear understanding that there are high chances you may never see your apartment building again or your loved ones for that matter, it's just a little hard to stay "out of politics". It's slightly difficult to say: "It doesn't concern me"," Dmytro said.
Over 20,000 people from as many as 52 countries have already volunteered to fight for Ukraine. Very recently, one of the world's most deadly snipers said he is set to join Ukraine's fight against Russia. The marksman is known only by his nickname 'Wali'. He has now answered President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's call for foreign volunteers to fight against Russia.
"So many people all over the world are donating to the Ukrainian army. Thousands of volunteers on the borders of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romanian, and Moldova are helping Ukrainian women and children with necessities. Not only Ukraine, but the world hasn't seen so much unity for decades. Regardless of their background, people are coming together to preserve the peace," Dmytro said. "I haven't lost faith. You shouldn't either."