Each of our meetings with IDPs is filled with stories that are extremely touching because of their courage, bravery, and pain. They are rich with tears, love, and hugs. Every life story passes right through us and stays imprinted in our hearts. We continue the cycle of stories of people who were forced to leave their homes because of the war. The fourth story is about Andriy from Kherson:
Andriy is one of the first residents of the shelter run by the Maltese Relief Service. He was caught up in the war in Kyiv, and his family remained blocked in Kherson.
“When the war started, I was at work in Kyiv. At dawn I woke up to explosions. The house was shaking, and I could see flashes through the window. It was very scary. I immediately called my parents in Kherson, they had already realized that the war had started because they live near Chornobaivka,” Andriy recalls. “Half an hour later, my alarm clock rang, and I ran to work. I work at a service station, so we started hiding all the cars in the garage.”
The next morning, Andriy rented a car to get to his parents in Kherson as soon as possible. “I called my friends from Kherson who also lived in Kyiv. I tried to calm them down, they were already hysterical. I explained that it was very dangerous to stay in Kyiv, and we all went to Kherson together,” he says.
“We packed up in the car, the girls took their cats, but we drove only 100 kilometers from Kyiv. We were turned around and said it was dangerous to go further south. Then our parents called and told us not to go, because heavy fighting and shelling had begun. We turned around and just drove into the unknown to the west of Ukraine. Then, I remember, I didn’t eat anything for three days, I was constantly driving and drinking only coffee. The stress was incredible,” Andriy recalls.
Andriy and his friends got to our shelter in the middle of the night. “I had never been to Lviv before. We arrived in the middle of the night into the unknown. The city turned out to be very beautiful with incredibly kind people,” says Andriy. “I first learned about the Maltese Relief Service in the shelter. The fact that we have comfortable housing, delicious food, constant help from psychologists and volunteers is priceless.”
His parents still stay in Kherson because they cannot leave their elderly grandparents. This is how Andriy described the situation before the de-occupation of Kherson region: “In Kherson, the connection is constantly lost, if we can’t get on the phone for a day, I can’t stay calm. My parents have now moved to the village to live with my grandparents, and they are taking care of them. I am constantly sending medicines and food from Lviv, but not everything reaches there because of the russian checkpoints. You know, so much has changed in this time, values have changed. We used to live thinking that we had a lot of problems, and now you realize that it was all just nonsense.”
On November 11, 2022, Kherson and the right-bank part of the Kherson region were liberated by the Ukrainian military. Kherson had been under russian occupation for eight months, from the first days of the war.
“My only dream is that our victory will come soon and the war will end, so that people will not die. I really want to go home, I haven’t seen my mom and dad since the New Year. I just want to see them and hug them, that’s all I need,” says Andriy about his cherished dream.
