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The final time Tetiana Popovych spoke to her son was on the primary of March.
Vlad Popovych, 29, had been sheltering within the basement of a college in his village simply exterior Kyiv as Russian forces superior.
“He instructed me, ‘Mum do not come right here. One thing terrible is beginning. This isn’t like within the motion pictures. This can be a horrible warfare,'” Tetiana recalled.
The next day he tried to flee however was shot and wounded – after which vanished, leaving his household frantic with fear.
They’re certainly one of hundreds of households torn aside by Russia’s warfare, with family members feared buried within the rubble of buildings, injured and unable to make contact and even forcibly moved by Russian troopers to Russia, Belarus or occupied territory in jap Ukraine.
Ukraine’s inside ministry mentioned the police have obtained greater than 7,000 studies of lacking individuals since Russia’s invasion began. Solely about half have been positioned.
Tetiana, 52, spends her days looking for her son, clinging to the hope her solely youngster continues to be alive.
“It’s the most tough factor,” she mentioned, talking within the city of Bucha, the place she lives along with her mom. It’s a mile away from the village of Blystavytsya the place her son had been staying together with his father – Tetiana’s ex-husband – and stepmother.
“If solely I had some thread of details about what occurred to him. I by no means thought that I would wish to know whether or not my son is alive or useless,” she mentioned.
Vlad tried to flee from his village together with his stepmother Polina Chervakova, 47, of their minibus on 2 March, Tetiana defined.
As they reached a bridge, nonetheless, they got here beneath fireplace from Russian troopers.
The pair jumped out of their car and tried to flee down a grassy path however Polina was shot within the jaw. She instructed Vlad she may preserve going, however then he was shot within the leg. Polina turned to return and assist him however she was shot once more via the shoulder.
She collapsed, unconscious. When Polina got here spherical, Vlad was nowhere to be seen.
“She tried to seek for him nevertheless it was darkish… She was in shock,” Tetiana mentioned.
Gravely wounded, Polina knocked on a close-by home. Russian troopers have been inside and instructed her to go away. She survived for a number of days within the freezing chilly earlier than lastly making it again to the household residence and her husband.
“She ate snow and drank water from a puddle [to survive],” Tetiana mentioned.
By that time, Russian forces had taken management of the realm.
Tetiana had been dwelling in a distinct a part of the nation on the time so couldn’t seek for her son till the tip of March when the Russian army have been lastly overwhelmed again.
From that time, she has finished nothing however search for Vlad, sticking up posters of him, along with her cell phone quantity, exterior buildings and on fences within the native space.
She is certain he’s alive. “I’ve no different consideration,” Tetiana mentioned.
“I’m pondering he’s in captivity or has misplaced his reminiscence. Possibly he’s someplace in a hospital as a result of now we have now a really huge confusion with paperwork as a result of the [Russian soldiers] destroyed all lists and notes of who was injured,” she mentioned.
One other mom is enduring the same agony.
Anna Kotlyarova, who lives in Kyiv, has not heard from her daughter, Inga Levko, and her daughter’s husband, Andrii Geleta, since an trade of textual content messages on 4 March.
The couple had been renovating their new residence within the village of Kolonschyna, simply exterior the capital, and had been dwelling with a neighbour subsequent door when Russian forces rampaged via the realm.
The neighbour’s home was obliterated, whereas the couple’s residence continues to be standing, however was briefly taken over by Russian troopers till they pulled again on the finish of March.
“On 7 April after we first arrived right here with the police and legal investigators they didn’t discover our bodies,” Anna mentioned, standing exterior the couple’s residence and by the ruins of the neighbour’s home. “They discovered solely burnt telephones and possibly some bones of animals.”
She too nonetheless hopes that her daughter and husband are alive.
“You recognize… I am telling myself that she is. I need to consider in a miracle.”
Requested what she missed most about her daughter, Anna mentioned: “We’re inseparable elements of one another… We have been on the identical wavelength. I do not know… It seems like dropping half of your self and even dropping all of your self.”
Anna may even by no means hand over till she finds solutions.
“I am making an attempt to maintain being robust,” she mentioned. “If one thing occurs to me, no person will likely be looking for them.”
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