Lidia Stepanivna, a 98-year-old resident of Ocheretyne in the Donetsk region, covered about 10 km under shelling to reach Ukrainian territory.
This was reported in the Main Department of the National Police in the Donetsk region.
The house that Lidia Stepanivna built with her own hands was destroyed by the Russians, and her relatives were injured. She decided to reach free Ukrainian territory: she walked all day without food or water, fell several times without strength and, as she says, "fell asleep." The woman held on to two sticks and "on a strong spirit". In the midst of the fighting, the pensioner miraculously remained alive and unharmed.
Already in the evening, the pensioner was noticed by the military, who handed her over to the "White Angels" — a unit of the National Police, which is engaged in the evacuation of civilians from the frontline areas. They took Lidia Stepanivna to a shelter for evacuees, and provided her with all the necessary assistance. Lidia Stepanivna is feeling well after the "march throw".
"I survived that war and I am going through this war. I was left with nothing. But I left to my Ukraine on my feet," says Lidia Stepanivna.
Last week, 88-year-old Ivan Yakovych did something similar. He left the occupied part of Ocheretyne on foot in order not to receive Russian citizenship. Volunteers picked him up on the road and took him to a safe place in Dnipro.
Mandatory evacuation has been announced in the Donetsk region, and mandatory evacuation from front-line communities. The Russian occupiers are shelling the towns and villages of the region every day, as a result of which there are wounded or dead every day.
- On the morning of April 27, the spokesman of the "Khortytsia" operational-strategic group Nazar Voloshyn said that now two-thirds of Ocheretyne in the Donetsk region are under the control of the Defense Forces of Ukraine. Fierce fighting continues in the Donetsk region.