I drove 600 miles with no food or sleep to escape Ukraine as it was bombed by Russia – I had to leave my family behind
A UKRAINIAN woman who drove almost 600 miles while air raid sirens blasted and Putin dropped bombs near her family home in Kyiv has made it to London.
Nastya Zagoruychik is staying with friends in the city after fleeing the Russian invasion last week and is organising supplies to send back home to support the troops.
The 22-year-old was woken up by a phone call at 5.30am on the day the invasion started.
It was her friend telling her to pack a bag as quickly as she could and get out of Kyiv as things were about to get a lot worse.
She checked her Facebook last Thursday morning and it was flooded with posts saying “war has started, war has started”.
Nastya told The Sun: “We did not fully realise what was happening, but military equipment was already passing by which we had previously seen only at ceremonial parades.
"Checkpoints had been set up and the first losses were reported.
"My friends said to gather my clothes and phone and get out of the city. I got my luggage, got dressed, and just started driving.
“It was being shelled when I left. Then a lot of cars were leaving Kyiv and it took us seven hours just to get out of the city.”
'I DROVE WHILE SIRENS BLASTED'
The young journalist, who was born in Kyiv, first went with her family to their country house near the outskirts of the capital before she decided to get in her car that day and drive west.
“I picked up my friend, who has a young child, as we started driving," she said.
"It was incredibly hard to leave my parents and brother behind but it was what I had to do to be safe.
“My parents didn’t have the opportunity to leave. The men aren’t allowed to cross the border now so that’s why they didn’t come with me.
"My mother would not leave without her husband, so that’s why she has stayed.
“It was the longest I have ever driven by car on my own. I was without food, without sleep and without food.”
Heading towards the border with Slovakia, Nastya drove for 14 hours straight while air raid sirens blasted before they stopped to sleep.
She said: “My thoughts were just in a fog and I didn’t know what to do. You just keep driving all day. All day and all night.
“Across Ukraine all of the stations were out of fuel so it was very hard to fill up the car.
“The worst thing is to be on the road in an unknown city when the air raids sounds. What do you do? Stop the car and look for shelter, or go on without stopping?
“We stopped to sleep in western Ukraine with a family who took us in for free and fed us. We were extremely grateful.
"After every point where we stopped, the next day there was news of 'air alarm in X' or 'destroyed bridge in X'. It was as if an invisible force was protecting us along the way and we moved just in time."
TWO DAYS TO QUEUE AT THE BORDER
When Nastya finally got to the Slovakian border the queue was so long that she was told it would take two days for her to cross.
She said: “The immigration officer said it was better to go to the border with Hungary because the lines were not as bad.
“On the border with Hungary there were good people who gave all the drivers food and water.”
It was around midnight on Tuesday when Nastya finally escaped Ukraine and got into Hungary.
From there she carried on driving and arrived in Košice, a city in eastern Slovakia, at 6am on Wednesday.
She ditched her car and headed to the airport where she bought a one-way ticket to London.
After landing at Luton four days ago Nastya spent two nights at a hostel before her friends gave her a place to stay with them.
One of the first things she did after flying to the city was share a picture of the Winston Churchill statue in Parliament Square, and tell her friends back home: “Glory to Ukraine! I will do on the western front everything I can and more.”
She had a VISA from when she covered the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November for the Ukrainian media, which is how she was able to travel to the UK.
'I WORRY ABOUT MY FAMILY BACK HOME'
Nastya worries about her family back home who have not been able to leave the country after President Zelenskyy declared martial law last week.
All men aged 18-60 are banned from crossing the border and have been urged to join the army.
She said: “My parents and my brother with his one-year-old child are still in Kyiv. We are in contact a lot, and reading the news every second.
“For now, the connection is available but there is a threat of losing that line to them. I am very worried about them.
“I am just thinking what can I do for them because my parents are with dogs. They have run out of dog food and that’s what they are worried about right now, not about themselves but about the dogs.
“They are sleeping in bomb shelters. It’s a very scary situation.
“We heard this news about Russia but we didn’t expect them to be so insane to do it. They are attacking civilians.
“This isn’t a war, it’s a genocide. They are not fighting with our army, they are fighting civilians.
“They are attacking the nuclear power plant and I don’t know what they expect. The radiation will kill everyone, not just the Ukrainians. Putin is just insane.
"It had to happen sooner or later. The threat of the continuation of the war has been looming over Ukraine for 8 years, since 'our fraternal people' occupied the Crimea and seized the territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions."
'I'M GOING TO DO WHAT I CAN'
"I can't believe that this is happening to my peaceful country, which just wanted to slowly but surely move its own way towards a better future.
"But we were ready for this and therefore we are now defending the whole of Europe from these orcs at the cost of the lives of our military, at the cost of our cities and houses.
"We expect a corresponding return in the form of sanctions, humanitarian and military support from other countries.
"If now the world does not stop Putin with us, he will not stop in Ukraine. You can be sure of this."
Now she is contacting organisations in the UK to try and find supplies to be able to send back home.
She said: “They need Starlink stations [SpaceX’s internet service], satellite phones, and armour to save the lives of our soldiers.
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“The neighbouring countries are out of it because no one expected such a large scale war.
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“I am just looking now for contacts for organisations and I’m trying to reach famous Ukrainians who are here. We need equipment.
“I’m going to stay for now and do what I can to help from here.”