Ukrainian man escapes forest
Val describes a raw glimpse into the lengths some Ukrainian men say they'll go to avoid war, recounting how he walked through forests for multiple days to flee Ukraine and evade conscription. The final day of this illegal escape involved discarding unnecessary items while keeping essentials, yet the pleasant weather sparked fear. After not seeing a plane in the sky for nearly four years, painkillers were taken and a bandage wrapped around a right foot before running between trees. An open road left no choice but to proceed, and spotting a road belonging to another country provided renewed energy as the group crossed easily without encountering guards. This route was planned over several months to locate a specific safe crossing point where a friend cried with joy. Upon opening Instagram at a safe place, Val contacted an editor to film a reaction for a future video. He also called his disabled father who was detained at a draft center for 26 days after being declared healthy despite his condition.
Trascrizione (en)
This is the final day of my illegal escape from Ukraine. We threw out all unnecessary things, leaving onto the most important. Weather was too good, which scared me. I see a plane flying. Haven't seen them in the sky for almost four years. Absolutely no emotions, cold head, sharpening my right foot. I take painkillers and wrap it with bandages. Then start running between trees. And suddenly we just run into an open road. We look at each other and realize there is no choice. I'm exhausted running and when I see the road of another country it's like I got a second wind and we did it. We were lucky. No border guards at this point and crossed easily. This wasn't random, we planned this road for months to find this exact safe crossing spot. Emotions overwhelm us. My friend is crying from joy. We start calling everyone. My editor telling me to film my reaction when I will first time open Instagram. I will film it when I reach a safe place and show it later in the next video. I wonder there's maybe 10k followers. Then I called my disabled father who was caught on the street and declared healthy so they could send him to the front. He's been held at a draft center for 26 days. We went down to local people and they asked where we were coming from. Fed us and welcomed. Locals called police. As I know, they have to keep us in the cell for some time and then give us protection documents.
