Granddad recalls escape from war zone
A YEAR after a Durban grandfather earned the moniker James Bond for his epic escape from war-torn Ukraine, Raymond Satish Ramjiawan recalled how he was woken up by sirens and then learned that Russian forces had invaded the country.
It was February 24, 2022, and the 70-year-old uMhlanga businessman was sleeping in his hotel room in Kyiv.
As the sirens went off, he received a panicked telephone call from a Ukrainian friend advising him to pack a small bag of essentials and be ready to leave.
This was just hours after his family learnt where he was because he had flown to Ireland before going to Kyiv.
What followed was six days of criss-crossing the country, hitchhiking or walking. He reached safety by tapping into a network of business contacts and friends.
Ramjiawan trudged through snow, sheltered in bunkers with friends, ran up and down flights of stairs to evacuate buildings as the sirens rang out warnings of imminent attacks.
As army vehicles rolled into Kyiv and traffic carrying people fleeing the city became heavier, Ramjiawan finally got to the border with Poland. From Poland he flew to France, then Johannesburg and Durban.
This week he told the Independent on Saturday that despite promising his family he would only return once there was peace, he had again been to Ukraine in October and only revealed this on his return home.
“I didn’t want them to panic but I wanted to check up on my friends.”
This time he boarded a train in Poland’s capital, Warsaw, to Kyiv.
“Entering Ukraine you hear the sirens from time to time. Most of the shopping centres are not busy, restaurants are closed and lots of buildings are flattened. Outside Kyiv many towns are demolished and the curfew is 11pm. If you are out after 11pm you can end up in jail,” he said.
Ramjiawan said despite the ongoing attacks and the destruction of the electricity grid and other infrastructure by Russia, the Ukrainians were resilient and trying to get on with their lives.
The businessman, who imports yellow peas (dhal), millet and oats from Ukraine to South Africa, said the farming sector had suffered heavily; crop yields were smaller and the economy had contracted by 40%.
However, what was continuously on the rise was the support for Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, he said.
Meanwhile, friends in Russia have repeatedly told him they only had access to state news and were unaware of what was happening.
Ramjiawan says he won’t return to Ukraine for now, but that’s out of choice not because he was afraid.
He said visiting Ukraine was not a sign of bravery.
“You are at risk in any place, risk is always there,” he said.