Ukrainians recount harrowing escape

Stories become increasingly disturbing as Russia prepares to annex regions

On the road out of the Russian-controlled region of Kherson in southern Ukraine, bridges are rigged with explosives. Russian soldiers at a maze of checkpoints strip men naked to look for identifying tattoos and loot the meager possessions carried by people scrambling to flee. And on several occasions last week, according to witnesses who managed to escape, Russian forces fired on the vast convoys of cars.

“These two days were just a hell,” Iryna Sydorenko, 49, said Friday after making it to safety in the mining town of Kryvyi Rih. “Total hell.”

As Russia takes steps to permanently rip Kherson and other regions under its control from Ukraine by introducing Russian currency, appointing proxy leaders to local government and hunting down people they consider a security risk, the stories told by witnesses who have managed to escape have become increasingly harrowing.

Chobotariov Yurii, 57, who used his mother’s maiden name to avoid endangering relatives still in Kherson, said he had been trying for weeks to flee. On his third attempt, May 11, he finally made it out.

“I saw people giving up,” he said. “But I didn’t, and it finally worked.”

He said that he had joined a column of about 500 cars and that explosions had echoed as they raced from checkpoint to checkpoint.

“Men who are under 30 were taken out of the car and told to take off their clothes,” he said. “Russians were checking their tattoos.”

Russian soldiers searched cellphones and computers and solicited bribes, he said. They blamed the Ukrainians for shooting at the convoy.

He said it was not until he reached safety that he discovered that an older woman in a car behind him had been wounded. Another car nearby was struck by shrapnel but its occupants were not injured, he added.

The head of Kryvyi Rih’s military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, said that a 68-year-old woman and an 11-year-old had sustained shrapnel wounds when Russian forces opened fire on a convoy recently.

Sydorenko — who also used her mother’s maiden name for fear of endangering people still in Kherson — said she’d fled with 20 people — mostly women and children — crammed into a minibus meant for 15. As they handed over their cellphones at each checkpoint, they held their breath.

“It’s hard to wipe everything off from your phone,” she said.

As the hours passed with no food and no water, the journey took an increasing toll on the children.

“The road was very scary,” she said. “When we were driving across one bridge, there were a lot of explosives set up there. What if it would blow up?”

She said that they were then held for hours at a checkpoint in the town of Beryslav on Thursday and that explosions boomed just as they started moving again. One shell struck the line of vehicles 10 cars in front of their bus, she said.

In the end, she estimated that more than 1,000 cars had eventually joined the convoy and made it to Kryvyi Rih, part of an exodus that Ukrainian officials estimate has left the region with about half of its prewar population.