This evacuation will remain forever in the memory of the Humanitarian Hub “East-West” team.
In the evening, we received a request to evacuate people from the settlement of Shevchenkove, who had been evacuated from Kupiansk by the “Skelia” unit. What was supposed to be an ordinary trip turned into long hours of waiting, danger, and human pain. While law enforcement officers documented war crimes, we waited together with people who had lost their loved ones: one woman’s husband was killed by Russians, another woman lost her son.
When it got dark, an enemy drone began circling overhead, and everyone had to take shelter at the police station.
The most horrifying part was the stories told by the evacuees from Kupiansk. Constant shelling, street battles, snipers and drones targeting civilians, living in fear and without even the possibility of going out for food. They survived where every step could have been their last.
We were able to leave for Kharkiv only ten minutes before midnight. But most importantly — everyone we were supposed to evacuate reached a safe place.
And the ending of this story gives hope: parents whom their daughter had already believed to be dead were finally able to embrace her. And for the first time, they saw their little granddaughter, who was born while they were in the very epicenter of the fighting.
It is for moments like these that we continue to work. To save. To help. To give people a chance for a new beginning.
With support: Humanitarian Hub «East-West»
