Petro Rondiak was among the thousands in Ukraine fleeing to nearby countries where they could find safety after the Russian invasion.
The Westchester man managed a 19-hour drive to escape the country and cross the border into Romania once the violence began.
“I was internally devastated, that this free and democratic country could be punished like this by an autocratic regime,” he said via video call.
Rondiak manages an automotive company with 800 employees in the Ukraine. When he got the warning call from his wife here in New York, he jumped into a truck and started driving west toward the border.
The sight of explosions on the horizon became the backdrop for their escape.
Rondiak and a colleague decided to take secondary roads through Ukraine, fearing an encounter with Russian forces on the main roads.
“And at some points, they’re pretty bad, like nature already biting into the side of the road, or big unwanted potholes, for example,” he said of the ride.
Finally reaching the Ukraine-Romania border after 7pm, Rondiak witnessed a massive crowd of people trying to flee, but only women and children were allowed through; men ages 18 to 60 had to stay behind to fight.
“It was this harrowing process of seeing, you know, men coming in with their wives, their daughters, their babies, pushing them through this crowd to the other side of the border, kissing them, turning around and going back to fight for Ukraine,” he said.
Rondiak, able to cross over to Romania because he is an American citizen, is safe, but he constantly thinks of the colleagues, employees and friends left behind.
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