These Ukrainians stuck it out in their homes for over 6 months, but are finally fleeing
Shelling during Russian invasion intensifies as Ukraine forces try to gain back ground in southern areas
A bus pulls up to the side of the road, carrying just four passengers about an hour before curfew in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine.
It's dark and the summer nights in central Ukraine have started to gain an autumn chill. Two men and two women step off the bus with large plastic bags holding their only possessions.
Their home is just 70 kilometres away, in the village of Petrivka in the Donetsk Oblast region of Eastern Ukraine. But the four have been travelling for about 17 hours because shelling along the route blocked them from a direct route.
We were in the occupation for half a year and now we do not have any strength to stay any longer.- Valeriy Baluta
"It was very dangerous … we barely got to this place," says Sofia through a translator. "The road is very dangerous. We were almost totally shelled. It was a horror."
Sofia is just one of the many internally displaced people in Ukraine who are just fleeing now, over six months after the start of the Russian invasion. Many people in Ukraine stuck it out for those months, hoping to stay in their homes. But with Ukrainian forces trying to gain back ground in the southern areas of the country, shelling has intensified and many feel they have no other choice but to leave.
Sofia spoke to CBC, wanting to share her story, but isn't comfortable giving her full name. The rest of her family is too shaken to be interviewed.
Fears of dying prompted them to leave
As Sofia enters a city shelter, she almost stumbles, weak with exhaustion and stress. The shelter's director calls for a chair and water immediately. She takes large gulps from the bottle.
She describes the last few weeks in her village "three times worse than it was before," with constant shelling. She says she and the others on the bus were the only ones left hanging on, but if they stayed there any longer, "we would die."
"When we saw the first [Ukrainian] tank, my eyes bulged out of my head," says Sofia. "I can't express the happiness I felt when we 'crossed the line,'" she adds, thanking the Ukrainian soldiers who helped them get out safely.
On Sept. 3, the Institute for the Study of War said several Russian sources reported that Ukraine tried to advance in a number of villages in northern Kherson, including Sofia's village of Petrivka.
Sofia says her family were among the last to leave the village she has lived in all her life. She says that after months staying in her basement, eating canned food, her home was destroyed.
"We were collecting money, collecting money, building [our] house and in one moment, everything went away."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that two southern villages had been retaken. A photo circulated on social media shows a soldier hoisting a Ukrainian flag in Vysokopillia in the southern Kherson region.
"Ukrainian flags are returning to the places where they should be," said Zelenskyy, adding that two settlements have been liberated, without naming them.
The regional capital of Kryvyi Rih has taken on a large number of the people fleeing the increased fighting in Kherson. The city is housing 70,000 people from other territories; about half of them are from the Kherson area.
Along with providing housing for those who need it, the city is giving them three meals a day, says the head of the military administration in Kryvyi Rih.
"Russians act like barbarians, like terrorists. They regularly shell peaceful villages, hamlets and small towns," says Oleksandr Vilkul.
In the last two weeks, there has been an increase in the number of people leaving nearby villages, he says.
"We are evacuating people from the front line and territories near the front line. We send our buses, our ambulances, trying to convince people to evacuate. At least 10 or 30 per cent stayed [in the] occupied territory."
Vilkul says the city needs help feeding those who have recently arrived and assistance with school equipment for the 18,000 new students they will be teaching.
Families also fleeing Russian-occupied territories
It's not just people in Kherson who are leaving.
Families are attempting to drive out of Russian-held territories of the south like Melitopol, in the Zaporizhzhia region.
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"We were in the occupation for half a year and now we do not have any strength to stay any longer," Valeriy Baluta says through a translator.
Baluta and his wife Viktoria Baluta made a run for safer ground on Aug. 30 with their sons, eight-year-old Konstantyn, five-year-old Oleksandr and 11-month-old Mykhail. Like Sofia, their journey to Zaporizhzhia was halted by shelling.
"The explosions started immediately on the field," says Viktoria. "So where should we hide? So we were pressed against the car."
The couple said the drive was much worse than what they had read about, through accounts of other people leaving Melitopol on social media and news sites.
"Oh you cannot imagine — it raised up my adrenaline level," she says.
"I was shocked. When you hear about this, it's not comparable when you see the burned-down military equipment, holes in the asphalt. The mines are laying on both sides. Horror, horror."
It was a relief to see Ukrainian soldiers as they passed through a checkpoint that welcomed them back into the country's territory.
"My impression was that even the sky is bluer here," says Viktoria, whose family eventually hopes to end up in Poland. "It's a physiological feeling; it's even immediately easier to breathe."