“We were trying to leave on March 4, the guys from the Red Cross were with us, the sirens sounded every 15-20 minutes, we loaded the children into the vehicles, heard the sirens and immediately unloaded. Then again, on a new road, we started to drive. A soldier stopped us near the bridge, there was a tank battle on the other side of the bridge, we couldn’t continue, so we returned to the hospital.
That night in the hospital, before the next attempt, was the hardest. We thought that tomorrow could be the last day of our lives, if there was even one small mistake. We were all anxious, we didn’t know what awaited us, but we knew that many civilians in their cars were executed, entire families were executed. We planned to try again, wishing for luck.
The next morning, we drew Red Crosses on our cars and wrote the words “CHILDREN” on white sheets of paper. Victor Nikoliuk, the future Hero of Chernihiv, came to help and accompany us. We left Chernihiv without a single siren or explosion, we were just lucky…
The road out of the city was surprisingly quiet, the Red Cross and a military car led by Viktor Nikoliuk were driving ahead of us. We drove extremely fast through the circle of Chernihiv – Kulikivka – Kipti, and there we were met by the “ready-to-be- stormed” Kyiv. We arrived relatively quickly, in 4-5 hours. The children were tired, but they were safe and alive. The children were accompanied by the head of the hematology department Yehor Mykhailovych Pavlenko, department nurse Larisa Shipko and their parents. The children were carefully disembarked from the vehicles. In Kyiv, we were met by oncologist Dyma Serhii Vitaliyovych, who admitted us to the hospital for the night. The plan was simple, to stabilize the children and tomorrow to hand them over to representatives from Tabletochka. These volunteers will send the children to Lviv by train. After reaching Lviv, they will be transported by bus to Poland. From Poland, the children will be sent all over Europe to different hospitals. Everyone was fed and given time to rest and recover. We moved on, our task had been accomplished. Night came and again the sirens and artillery fire. We went to spend the night in different apartments in Kyiv.”
