Ukraine war: 98-year-old Ukrainian says she walked miles alone through Russian territory | BBC News

Ukraine war: 98-year-old Ukrainian says she walked miles alone through Russian territory | BBC News

we want to take you now back to Ukraine
we actually have a remarkable story of a
98-year-old grandmother who managed to
cross the front lines she was walking
with a cane here she is Mrs Lydia
deciding to leave the Russian occupied
territory and donet to safety without
any help available and she reached the
Ukrainian controlled side police found
her and took her to a shelter what a
story how did she do it let’s speak to
our Ukrainian reporter Olga mesca who
joins us from The Newsroom we love the
story Olga what a remarkable woman how
did she
manage thank you very much Lucy well
indeed remarkable right 90e old woman
managed to cross the front line and get
from the Russian occupied territory of
the next equion as you said to the
Ukrainian controlled territory well
according to what she told to the police
she woke up to a strong shelling and she
was worried that she had literally to
escape to survive and she tried to
escape together with her love ones with
her son and her daughter-in-law and then
they became separated by the sharing the
story went quite dramatic she fell down
twice she managed to stand up and
continue walking and if you look at her
on if you see her on the video you can
see that she was walking just in her
sleepers and just with a walking cane
and that’s how she managed to walk for
over 10 km which is over 6 miles and
then then she managed to cross to the
Ukrainian controlled territory where she
was noticed by the local police the
police took her to a shelter they were
obviously quite amused and they tried to
help her tried to find out what happens
to her loved ones and the story went
even happier because they managed to
find her loved ones and as far as the
local police reported um her son and her
daughter-in-law are alive and they found
them in one of the local hospitals and
hopefully they will reunite soon but
there was another the update so one of
Ukrainian Bankers when he read about
that story he became very moved and he
said he would buy a house for Le Stan
because she lost everything literally
and maybe if we have time we could
listen to what she was saying about her
situation how she was speaking to the
police I woke up to a horrible shelling
I’m 98 years old I had survived the
previous war now I’ve been facing
another one the previous war had not
been like this one I hadn’t seen any
homes burned now the homes have been
buring terrifying for her ogga and she
also compared what she’s been through to
the Russian invasion during the second
world war yes she managed to survive the
second world war and uh when I listen to
the whole video beit she was she was
quite um explaining in quite a detail of
what she remembered so she remembered
that the during the second world war the
houses around were still standing there
so there were no civilian houses damaged
apparently in that region where she was
but now as she said everything was on
fire and she lost her home which she
built as she had said to the police she
built it uh with her own hands really
and now she has nothing so that’s why
there is a hope that maybe that
successful story will turn into even
more successful and maybe she will get a
new house if the promise will be um
fulfilled but we will follow up with
that definitely we Olga we absolutely
will this is a story we have to have a
followup of and let’s hope she does
indeed get that house as promised thanks
Olga

A 98-year-old Ukrainian woman has said she walked six miles (10km) under shelling, supporting herself with sticks and sleeping on the ground.

The woman, identified as Lidia Stepanivna, left a rural settlement in Donetsk, Eastern Ukraine, which is now occupied by Russia – she was trying to reach areas controlled by Kyiv.

She said she had walked without food or water and fell several times, in a video posted by Ukraine’s police on social media.

In a statement, Ukraine’s interior ministry said that the woman was discovered by Ukraine’s military and then was taken to a shelter for evacuees by police.

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