From Freiburg, Oleg Zharkov pulled out all the stops to get his family out of the Ukraine. Mother and grandmother were on the run for five days. The father had to stay behind.
In order to bring his family from Kyiv to Freiburg, Oleg Zharkov pulled out all the stops. After five days of fleeing by car, train and plane, he was finally able to hug his mother and grandmother again at the main train station. His father had to stay behind in Ukraine.
Oleg Zharkov hasn’t slept properly for days, has been on the phone and organized a lot – and actually he urgently needs to go to the hairdresser again, says the Ukrainian. But all of that is just beside the point. Because there is a war in his home country. He keeps getting new horror stories. “I can’t handle it anymore,” he says.
In 2014, Zharkov came to Freiburg to do a master’s degree in computer science. Because he liked Breisgau and found work quickly, he stayed in Germany. When Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, he initially couldn’t believe it. “I didn’t expect anything like that in 2022. For me, the conflict was practically frozen,” says the 28-year-old. Putin’s motives are completely incomprehensible to him, the argumentation illogical. His mother is Russian herself.
The family fled eastern Ukraine in 2014
Because the Russian army was getting closer and closer, his family decided to flee – not for the first time. She actually comes from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Oleg Zharkov also did his bachelor’s degree there. When arguments broke out in 2014, his parents decided to leave. Her son, in turn, applied for a master’s degree in Germany. “On the one hand, I’ve always wanted to study abroad and on the other hand, it was my way out,” he says.
His parents moved to Kyiv, leaving their family and house behind. “Now my heart is broken for the second time. The old fear is back,” says Charkov.
After the first attacks had also taken place in Kyiv, his family decided to make their way to their son. “They knew the longer they wait, the harder it will be to get out,” he says. His father fetched his grandmother from Donetsk and drove west with her and his wife. “They packed up as much as they could and drove off,” says her son.
Escape to the Polish-Ukrainian border becomes an odyssey
It took the family a day and a half before they finally arrived in Kowel near the Polish border. Because many people were also fleeing, the roads were closed. The journey turned into a nerve-wracking odyssey with long traffic jams. After all, it was no longer possible to get through at the border with Poland. It was decided to switch to the train. But that didn’t work either. Therefore, Zharkov advised his family to try Lviv. The family temporarily stayed with friends nearby. She kept trying her luck at the train station. “But even there the trains were overcrowded or didn’t come. If one came, everyone tried to get on somehow. But my grandmother is 87, that’s not possible,” he says.
The 28-year-old was in contact with his family the whole time, looked online for train connections and other travel options. He himself could not travel to the Ukraine, because he was not allowed to leave the country because of the general mobilization. Finally, a conductor took pity and accommodated his mother and grandmother on a train to Przemysl in Poland. His father had to stay behind: “He wants to follow as soon as possible.”
Because another train broke down on the route, the actually short journey took ten hours. “My mother had to stand the whole time, someone offered my grandmother a folding seat,” says Charkov. In Poland, on the other hand, the two were welcomed by volunteers. “The Poles were very friendly and took care of them,” he says. One of the helpers even drove the two to Kraków.
Great concern for relatives in Ukraine
“Actually, I wanted to buy train tickets for her to Berlin, but everything was sold out,” says Charkov. His only option was to book flights to Frankfurt. He paid almost 700 euros for the two tickets. “But that doesn’t matter,” he says. In Frankfurt, one of Zharkov’s former classmates picked her up at the airport and took her to the train station. They then took the ICE to Freiburg. Overtired but overjoyed, the family reunited at the main train station on the evening of March 1st.
“I haven’t heard from our relatives in Mariupol for days.” Oleg Charkov
Finally seeing her again was a great relief. But the concern for those left behind remains. “I haven’t heard from our relatives in Mariupol for days,” says Zharkov sadly. The 28-year-old is also worried about his friends in Kyiv. “Friends of mine have been hiding in an underground car park for days,” he says. He also doesn’t know what happened to her apartment in Kyiv. “But we heard that bombs had fallen nearby,” he says.
The father stayed in Ukraine and wants to fight
His father stayed near Lviv and actually wanted to volunteer for the military. “Men under 60 are not allowed to leave the country, he is 53. But he was told that they currently have enough volunteers,” says Charkov. So he can only wait and see – like many others.
Before the war, Zharkov could have imagined returning to Ukraine, but not now. “First of all, I’ll try to get a 450-euro job for my mother and a place on an integration course,” he says. His mother is an accountant and his father is a civil engineer. He is also concerned about his grandmother and her health. “She’s never been abroad. It was all very exhausting for her. She’s also frightened when she hears a plane, for example. She thinks it’s the Russians. She didn’t want to get on the plane in Kraków either,” says Charkov .
He was very moved by the great solidarity in Freiburg, the Ukrainian flags all over the city, the help and the many people who took to the streets. He is grateful for the strong role model function of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj: “He surprised me. I was never his biggest fan. But that’s the way democracy works. Whoever the people want becomes president.” Now it is important to stick together, to help people and not to let Putin win. That’s why Zharkov also helped organize aid shipments and peace demonstrations in Freiburg.
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