98-year-old Ukrainian woman trekked kilometres to avoid Russian gunfire

A 98-year-old woman in Ukraine walked 10 kilometres by herself in slippers and with a cane to escape from Russian-occupied territory. She has now been reunited with her family after they got separated while trying to flee to safety.

Lidia Stepanivna Lomikovska and her family left their town Ocheretyne in eastern Donetsk because Russian troops entered and there was a lot of fighting. They left last week.

Russians are moving forward in the region and attacking Kyiv’s weak and low on ammunition forces with weapons like artillery, drones and bombs.

“I woke up and there were gunshots all around me – it was really scary,” Lomikovska said in a video interview posted by the National Police of Donetsk region.

During the confusion of leaving, Lomikovska got separated from her son and two daughters-in-law. One of them, Olha Lomikovska, got hurt by shrapnel a few days before. The young family members chose to take the smaller roads, but Lydia wanted to stay on the big road.

She used a cane and a piece of wood to help her walk, and she didn’t eat or drink all day. She did this to reach the Ukrainian lines.

The older lady said she fell down two times and had to stop and rest during her journey. She even had to sleep for a while before waking up and continuing.

I fell into some plants when I lost my balance. I took a short nap and then kept on walking. And then, I fell for the second time. Then I stood up and told myself, “I have to keep moving, step by step,” said Lomikovska.

Pavlo Diachenko, who speaks for the police in Donetsk, said Lomikovska was rescued when Ukrainian soldiers saw her walking along the road in the evening. They gave her to the “White Angels,” a police group that helps people who live in dangerous areas. They took her to a safe place for people who had to leave their homes and called her family.

“I made it through that war,” she said talking about World War II. “I also had to be in the war, and now I have nothing left. ”

“That war was different from this one. ” I saw the war. No houses caught fire. “But everything is burning now,” she said to the person who saved her.

In a surprising turn of events, the head of a big bank in Ukraine said on his messaging app that the bank will buy a house for the older retiree.

“Monobank will purchase a house for Lydia Stepanivna and she will live in it until this abomination is gone from our land,” said Oleh Horokhovskyi.