One of the most emotional moments for me was during the first summer of the war. We were busy conducting evacuations of civilians who had fled from occupied territories and assisting them in reaching safer locations in the west of Ukraine or in the rest of Europe.
There was an extraordinary moment that happened twice a day when a convoy of vehicles, crammed full of civilians fleeing occupied territory, crossed over the front-line south of Zaporizhzhia and made its way under police escort to the car park of a large shopping centre that had been converted into an IDP reception centre. Here, documents were checked and civilians welcomed back to free Ukrainian territory before being handed over to organisations like ours to evacuate them further west.
It was on one of these occasions that we met Natalyia, a 15-year-old girl who faced unimaginable adversity. Both of Natalyia’s parents had been killed by Russian forces in her hometown of Kherson. Natalyia, having no relatives left in Kherson apart from her 18-month-old brother, embarked on a terrifying journey. Crossing occupied territory, she navigated 10 Russian checkpoints and crossed the front-line, ultimately reaching Zaporizhzhia with her brother. Natalyia was the bravest, most mature 15-year-old I have ever met; the ordeal she had been through was evident in her mental and physical exhaustion.
We transported Natalyia to a town in Vinnytsia Oblast, where, as we pulled into the designated drop-off point, her uncle and aunt were waiting for her. The moment she leapt out of the van and was reunited with her family, this remarkably brave young girl returned to being an innocent child again. She had spent nearly two weeks travelling through unimaginable horrors, and now, in this car park in Vinnytsia Oblast, she could finally break down in tears.
Toby Illingworth
Head of Mission