aiOn the road with my family was hard, both physically and emotionally.

aiFirst, an hour and a half of interrogation at the Russian border, where the Russian FSB officer began by demanding my phone. He looked through and listened to every message I had on it, hoping to find something that showed my pro-Ukrainian position.

aiBut in getting ready to cross the border, I deleted everything that could be of use to the enemy. Removing patriotic photos from my phone did not mean that I was betraying Ukraine.

aiIn my heart, I was keeping myself together, listening to their ‘terrible’ stories about how Ukraine started the war. The Russian FSB officer asked me if I knew what the Holocaust and Nazism were. Of course, I knew this from history lessons and the realities of today, but not in the distorted sense that the enemy was trying to impose on me.

aiThe last straw of psychological abuse was threatening to return me to the occupied territory. To some extent, they did manage to scare me, but I held on, and eventually, they let me through.

aiMy blue and yellow ribbon travelled with us all the way. After crossing the Russian border, we headed to the checkpoint in Latvia. When all was behind us, we finally could let our emotions run free.

aiAs we approached the Latvian border guards, we heard: "Don't worry, you are safe now." The kindness and compassion of the volunteers helped us a lot to not lose hope. 

aiWe spent the night in a hostel in a city in Latvia, got up at 4 am and drove 6 hours to Warsaw. Then spent the night at the train station and took the train to Berlin.

aiThe car trip was extremely exhausting as we almost never slept. Volunteers and people we met along the road were always trying to feed us and support us - that was the most pleasant part (read with a smile).