Minibus out of Mariupol: A daring mission to save parents
Nastya Pavlova took her parents out of the besieged Mariupol. Having chipped in money with relatives, the girl bought a minibus, in which she went to the war zone. Dozens of roadblocks, threats, shelling did not frighten and did not stop her on the way to her cherished goal — to save mom and dad.
Her girlfriend told what she felt on the way to Mariupol, which made her scared and made her cry. Her girlfriend saw people resigned to death, the ruins of her native city and those who took away the right to a peaceful life from her family.
“Finding my parents became my job,” Pavlova says. “I had contact with my parents only for the first three days, until Feb. 27.” Her friend persuaded her to leave.
“Mom was very afraid of the war, shelling, but did not even want to hear about the evacuation. She said: ‘We survived 2014. We will stand. Ukraine will protect us, don’t worry.’ No one could imagine that Mariupol would be wiped off the face of the earth.
“Communication with them disappeared for 25 days. It was scary. Especially when the first footage of the destroyed city appeared and I found out that my classmates’ relatives had died.
“Finding my parents was my job for almost a month. I wrote to all the chats in the city, neighbors, relatives, to find out at least some information.
“After a grueling search, I realized that no one would save and protect my parents except for me. I didn’t hesitate for a moment whether to follow them or not. I knew from Day One that I would do it.
“On the 28th day of the war, the parents found a place where they had a connection. Mom called me. I finally heard her voice. Her first words were: ‘Do not come — in any case, I will not tell you where we are.’
“Inside the city, people believe that there is no evacuation, that if you leave the city, you will surely die. A lot of misinformation is being spread about the actions of the Ukrainian military.
“Mom said that a shell hit them in the roof, they had little food left. In the end, I convinced them, and they agreed to go. But the question arose, how? You need a car to get into the city. But I didn’t have one and I don’t know how to drive. The solution was to buy a minibus.
“I must say right away that at Russian checkpoints they can pick up a car if there is no owner in it. So the car was registered to me. In one of the chats where people are looking for relatives, I contacted the driver. He needed to take medicine for his motherin-law.
“We cooperated, and on Monday, March 21, we set off with a column of volunteers towards Mariupol from Zaporozhye.
“At all checkpoints, we communicated with restraint. We entered Mariupol shortly before curfew. The atmosphere in the city was depressing. Around you are burnt cars, tanks, holes in houses, black buildings with collapsed roofs. Crowds of very dirty people with empty eyes follow the humanitarian aid along the mined highway.
Everything was taken from them, their relatives died.
“The next day I managed to come to my mom and dad. I couldn’t be happy. But I also couldn’t cry.
“‘We will cry on Ukrainian territory,’ I said to myself and my parents. We took eight people on the bus” — her parents and their neighbors.
“Seeing the Ukrainian checkpoint, everyone began to sob. Mom recognized the names of the guys, and promised to pray for them.”