A Mariupol family fled the horror of Russia’s war, but had to leave their parents behind

Mariupol refuses to surrender after Russian ultimatum 6:48 Dnipro, Ukraine (CNN) — Dmytro and Tania Shvets spent the first 23 days of Russia’s war in Ukraine holed up in their basement in Mariupol with their 7-year-old daughter, Vlada, and their fathers. The family managed to escape last Thursday from the besieged Ukrainian city, but their parents stayed behind. Tania, who fled northeast to the central city of Dnipro, told CNN that Russia’s bombardment has effectively wiped Mariupol off the map, and it’s only a matter of time before other cities in Ukraine face the same fate. “There is no longer any city there. There is no longer a city of Mariupol… there is not a single residential building left. Only 10% of the people are left there. Just pensioners with no money or (those without) cars who cannot escape (and) people who can’t walk,” Tania said from the relative safety of a temporary shelter in Dnipro. “We didn’t bathe for three weeks, (we went) to the bathroom in a bucket and a bag,” Tania wrote in a diary that she updates every day from her underground hideout. She shared her diary entries with CNN. The family rarely left the basement unless absolutely necessary to survive; he went out alone to find food and water, and once to help bury neighbors killed by Russian artillery while waiting in line for food. “The problem is that in our city we had nothing. There was no mobile connection. There was no Internet connection. Everything was cut off. The gas supply, the water supply. The lights,” Dmytro told CNN. “We were cooking outside, making the fire. Taking firewood from the parks. Because there was no other option to survive: to share food with our neighbors, our relatives.” The couple said it felt like Russian forces were targeting groups of civilians waiting in line for food, water or at a pharmacy. “They were just killing us. If we got together in a group to fetch water, they just shot at us,” Tania said. Dmytro and Tania Shvets say their apartment was the subject of an intense fire in Mariupol and the building is no longer standing. On the 11th day of the Russian invasion (March 6), she wrote in her diary: “A heavy attack has started. They were shooting at everything and everywhere, there were bombings of houses again. Today there is not a single kiosk left, even empty kiosks are being opened and people take everything from there: bags, cartons, vitamins from pharmacies… looting has become a way of survival.” Dmytro said no blames Russian citizens for what is happening in Ukraine, but does not understand why Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to target civilians: “Why the killing of civilians? Why? Why? We respect everyone,” he told CNN. CNN investigation into Mariupol bombing debunks Russian claim 3:40Cruel jokes come true During the early days of the conflict, Dmytro and Tania joked that if food was scarce, they could always eat pigeons.” At first it was like a joke. Oh, maybe we’ll kill a pigeon to eat,” Dmytro told CNN. Now, however, he said it’s no longer a joke, but a matter of catching the few pigeons that have survived the relentless Russian attacks. Dmytro fears his parents and in-laws starve. “I don’t know how they’re going to survive. Because there’s no food. My dad told me they don’t have food. Maybe… a week. Max,” he said with tears in his eyes. “I don’t know if I’m going to see my parents or hear my parents again. I have no idea,” he said, adding that they just live from day to day. “Today we are alive, tomorrow maybe not. No one knows,” he said. “Rivers of blood” in Mariupol The few times Dmytro left the basement to look for food and water in Mariupol, he saw crosses made from two wooden sticks, marking freshly dug graves in heavily bombed residential neighborhoods. This is the only symbol that families have available to mark the lives of their loved ones “We were burying people in front of their gardens, in patios. Our neighbors asked us to help dig the graves for their children, for their children “, he said. Tania and Dmytro Shvets escaped from Mariupol on March 18. Dmytro said a bomb fell in front of him while he was waiting in line for water, killing three people. He had to help bury them. Tania added: “We collected many corpses, people put them in ditches or in buildings, while it’s cold. Some people from Mariupol took (dead) people in their cars because they want to bury them.” He said that with each passing day in Mariupol he saw more deaths and more damage. “Rivers of blood run down the street,” he wrote in his diary. Tania she thought she was prepared for war and had plenty of cash on hand. But now she says she wishes she had listened to her grandparents when they told her to always have flour and sugar on hand, a mentality left over from World War II.” We didn’t know this was going to happen…instead of all the money and phones you need to have two suitcases at home that have batteries, candles, matches, medicine and a change of socks…you need one suitcase that will save your life. matches or candles. Where can you get them when you have money but there are no pharmacies or shops? “, she said. This is Ukraine’s struggle to retake Kherson from the clutches of Russia 5:26The escape from Mariupol On March 18, Tanya and his family ab they left her hometown as “victims” and “survivors.” “This is a graveyard for our family, friends, neighbors, residents, buildings. We have buried our dreams, goals, careers… We have lost everything that has been achieved over the years with hard work, ”she wrote in her diary. Dmyrtro said the decision to leave the city, and her parents, was agonizing, but “the only option.” “My mother was completely mentally destroyed, (she) was like (in) a complete depression, sitting in the basement; she hasn’t come out of the basement since the beginning of the war,” she said. “The last day I saw my father, he begged me, ‘Please guys go somewhere, I don’t know where, just get away from this, get away from this,'” she said. It was the first time Dmyrtro saw her father cry. “He told me ‘please…son, just go…just go and get your family out.'” The trip out of the city, a trip that normally took 45 minutes by car before the war, took them 15 hours. It was one roadblock after another, most manned by what they believe to be Russian soldiers. At a roadblock, Dmytro said he had to take off his shirt to show soldiers that he had no Ukrainian military or nationalist tattoos. The couple was afraid the Russians would hack their phones, so they wiped everything, erasing the horror of the previous three weeks, keeping only their parents’ phone numbers. In Dnipro, the couple’s 7-year-old daughter, Vlada, is not at home. But she understands why they had to leave. “A small child understands everything, even if he can’t speak because he is too small,” Vlada said. “I want the war to end soon,” she added. In the many hours CNN spent with the family in the temporary shelter in Dnipro, the couple constantly checked their phones for any communication from their parents who were still in Mariupol. As we were about to leave, Dmytro said that Tania had just received a call from her mother that she was crying and saying goodbye, because she didn’t think she would survive the night.