Ukraine, Alevtina tells of the escape: “Mariupol like the Phoenix, will rise from the ashes”

Is Mariupol hell? “No it’s much more. People are trapped there”, but “I like to imagine her as the Phoenix, the mythological bird that is reborn from its ashes because Mariupol will be freed, I believe it”. Alevtina Scevtsova is the mother of an 8-year-old boy and she managed to escape from that hell. First destination Zaporizhzhia, now located in Kryvyi Rig, not far from Dnipro. The house where he lived with his family, in the center of Mariupol, not far from the theater bombed by the Russians, no longer exists and at the Adnkronos he recounts the dramatic moments experienced in recent weeks, the fear of dying and the daring escape from the martyr city ‘, as it was renamed. In Mariupol in the last days the war was a reality with which to have to deal. “On March 13, a friend told us that we needed help at the hospital. My husband decided to go there. On his way there, the shooting started. He hid in a corner and when the fighting stopped he turned and walked away. realized that he was near corpses. There were at least 20 bodies covered by some cloth, “says Alevtina, who nearly died three days later.” On March 16 a bomb fell near our building, right in the place where we were preparing food. We were saved by a miracle. A moment before we had gone up to our apartment on the fourth floor to get the cutlery and plates, but my father was down. Suddenly we heard a loud explosion, the house was filled with dust “, the woman declares.” As soon as I went down – she continues – we heard the cries of the people and we saw some of them under the rubble. I knew that my father was there somewhere, but I didn’t see him. I let the children get off ( the son and the brother of 12 years i, ed) and my mother in the shelter and we instead started clearing the rubble. We saved a young woman named Halyna. Blood was dripping from her nose and mouth and she had chest damage. Her husband took her to their apartment and 15 minutes later he came back down saying it was over. “” Then we pulled out of the rubble Vadym, who had broken legs, and a boy named Ivan who was always in the center of the attention and made us smile, but he no longer had a whole bone. It looked like a lot of battered skin. When his wife saw him she ran away screaming. “Alevtina started calling her father who miraculously had remained alive despite the shock wave, but the refuge was no longer safe. The woman then said she was able to reach the inhabited center of Portovske, where the green corridor for evacuation officially begins but “they were shooting continuously”. The mother, “who only walks with a stick”, remained at the shelter with her father and brother. “We crossed walk to a Russian checkpoint. We arrived there on March 17th, after a day and a half of walking. But all this time I thought about my family and every minute that passed I believed that maybe I would never meet them again. As I walked I saw the planes bombing. Then a miracle happened. In Portovske I met my friend Denys and he told me that he had already gone to town three times to retrieve people. He made himself available and an hour later I left with him. Arriving at the Russian checkpoint, a soldier asked him if he was a Nazi, if he had Nazi tattoos and if he had served in the military. I said we were going to get the baby and he let us go. As I entered the city, I saw many unexploded bombs. “” I was afraid for my family. The roads were now destroyed, and the bombs had caused craters up to 7 meters wide. It was impossible to drive near the place where my parents were left. Denys stopped the car and said to run fast. When I got there I saw that the cellar door was pierced by the rocket fragments. I was afraid to open that door. Once I opened it, I saw the eyes of my parents and my brother. They immediately got up taking only a few bags and documents. At that moment the attacks began: when cluster bombs explode they split into several pieces, we had to calculate up to 12 explosions in order to then continue running. I was looking for Denys, I was shouting his name. Then we found it and ran away by car. Following completely destroyed roads we arrived in Portovske. From there we escaped thanks to a guy who had come to take his friends but was unable to contact them. In his bus he let 25 people get on and took us for free to Zaporizhzhia. She saved us. “Allevtina has mixed feelings today.” She is ashamed to have survived, because I am safe. Today I was able to go to the store to buy some food, I took a shower. And instead many of the people I know are dead, or they don’t have to eat or are under bombs “, he says with regret. But also anger because” many people are convinced that the situation in Mariupol is not so serious, that they are exaggerating a lot, some Ukrainians think so too. This makes me feel very bad because I have seen all the pain with my own eyes. I also happened to hear the lies that Russian TV spreads: that the Azov battalion is shooting at us. I can neither see nor hear these things. “” When we were in the cellar of a shop – it is the last memory of her tragedy – in one of the drawers I found the Ukrainian flag. We managed to get her out through all the Russian checkpoints. I have this flag with me and the house keys as a symbol that I will return “. Would you like to launch an appeal to Italy?” I advise everyone, not just Italians: appreciate every moment of your life – he concludes – Because you can’t know what will happen tomorrow . When things as normal as washing or eating become a moment of pure happiness. Think about your loved ones. Appreciate life “.