Pensioner Viktor Chaika walked 250 km to leave his occupied village
From the first day of the full-scale war, Russian convoys started moving from the occupied Crimea to Kherson and Mykolaiv through Prymorske village, where Viktor Chaika used to live. Locals destroyed several units of enemy vehicles, targeting them with ‘Molotov cocktails,’ but the Russians responded by firing on houses.
The man’s house is near the road, so all the events took place right in his eyes. It lasted for almost a month. Then rockets began to fly over the village. That was the moment Viktor decided to escape.
He took a small bag of belongings with him to be able to change his clothes and set off on foot. He walked 12 km from his village to Skadovsk, then 40 kilometers to Hola Prystan, and then another 25 kilometers to Oleshky, where the only desert in Europe is located. Afterward, he walked to Kherson, Berislav, and Nikopol. He had to spend the night in the bushes several times because by walking at night, he could risk being shot without talking.
In total, Viktor covered 250 km in five days until he and two random companions met the Ukrainian military on the border of Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions, who had just liberated a village. The military brought the men to safety.
Later, Viktor Chaika went to a few more cities until he finally got a train to the village in the west of Ukraine. There he was sheltered by the locals. The man is currently safe but does not know when he will be able to come back home.
