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Eyewitness Accounts of the War in 
Ukraine   
 
 
Anne Stackpole  
Leiden University 
 
 

Inna is a young wife and mother of two from Odesa, currently living as a refugee with her 
family in Warsaw. Her husband is an engineer of fighter planes, now working for the 

Ukrainian army. On May 12, Inna spent several hours with me sharing her story of survival 
during the war. I began by asking her about the initial days of the invasion and how she 

escaped to Poland. 
 
We knew that soldiers and tanks were amassing in occupied Crimea and that people there 
anticipated a war. We also knew that the Russian army was gathering on the border with 
Belarus. People were talking openly about an invasion. Because of the nearby threat from 
Crimea, many people in Odesa believed that they should evacuate and move to a safer part 
of the country. Something bad was brewing.  
 
On February 23, terrible panic started, but I did not want to leave the city. I have two young 
children, and I truly did not believe that Russia would invade us. I thought, in this day and 
age, it’s unheard of. However, I packed an emergency bag, in case we would have to 
evacuate quickly.  
 
On the morning of February 24, we started to hear the bombs and rockets. Some of the first 
targets were Soviet-era arms factories that were now being used for workshops and 
businesses. The Russians were using old maps that still listed those buildings as 
operational factories.  
 
Early that morning, the whole city started to escape. Everyone was packing their things and 
ran to their cars and the train station. At that point, I decided to get my family packed, but I 
wasn’t sure where to go. I have family in Vinnytsia (a city approximately 250 kilometers 
southwest of Kyiv), which I thought might be a safer place, but the road would be 
dangerous. We knew that they were bombing along highways and in towns we would have 
to pass. There had also been reports of shooting in Vinnytsia. In the end, I decided to go to 
stay with my sister and her three children, who also lived in Odesa. At least my sister had 
safer places to hide the children. We risked the drive through the city and had to pass an 
old chemical plant that now housed thousands of people’s workshops. We saw it explode 
when a rocket hit. Thankfully, it was before the start of the work day, so no one was inside.  
 
Everyone on the road was panicking, driving chaotically, trying to get out as quickly as 
possible. There were ambulances everywhere. At this point, my main concern was to keep 



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my kids safe and calm. I hoped that they wouldn’t ask too many questions, because I didn’t 
know what I could tell them.  
 
When we reached my sister’s house, we saw that the aftershock from the explosion of the 
nearby chemical plant had shattered the windows of neighboring houses. Thankfully, my 
sister had had the front and back door open at that moment and that had absorbed some of 
the shock for the house. Nothing was damaged. 
 
My sister and I hid the children in the bathroom, because it had compact walls and no 
windows. I remembered the safety tips I had learned in case of earthquakes, and I applied 
the same logic to the threat of another explosion. The smallest child slept in the bathtub, 
and the rest on benches along the walls. My husband obtained a gun, and we made Molotov 
cocktails. The city was encouraging everyone to get any weapons they could find ready to 
defend themselves. At this point, the grocery stores were still stocked with food, but we 
started baking our own bread in case of shortages.  
 
We could hear the shooting the whole time, and we learned how to differentiate the sounds 
of Russian and Ukrainian shooting. We could tell where it was coming from and what kind 
of weapons they were using. Even the children started getting used to the sound and 
calmed down when they recognized the sound of Ukrainian fire. They knew that our 
soldiers were defending the city. 
 

 
 

Inna’s children hiding in her sister’s house in Odesa 



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My mother and other sister live in Warsaw, and they were calling us frequently to convince 
us to come to Poland. However, none of us had international passports, and in the early 
days of the war, there was no way to cross the Ukrainian border without passports. As soon 
as the border control lifted the passport requirement, we bought tickets for the train from 
Odesa to Przemyśl (southern Poland). The train was our only option. It was the only 
international train out of the city. The roads were too dangerous because of the constant 
random shelling, and the train route went through safer towns.  
 
I had to go to the train station to buy the tickets in person, since we had no internet. They 
weren’t even selling tickets with assigned seats; the tickets were standing room only. I saw 
the pandemonium on the platform. The only way out of the city was to get into the four-car 
train, and thousands of people were trying to board every day. Moreover, the train 
departed after the city-wide curfew started at 6 PM. If you didn’t make it on the train, you 
might not be able to make it back home safely.  
 
We tried to get on the train for three days. We got to the station before 6 PM, and the 
platforms were already packed, mostly with women and children. Everyone was pushing 
their way through, and I was scared that the children would get trampled in the crowd. I 
tried to ask the station master if there was any chance to board with my children, but he 
just threw his hands in the air. The staff were not able to control the situation anymore.  
 
On the third day, we finally managed to board the train. I got onto one end of the car with 
my children, and my sister and her children got onto the other end. People were jumping 
onto the train as it started to move. As we left the station, all the city lights turned off, so 
that the Russians could not see the train leaving the station. It would have been an easy 
target.  
 
It was a forty-hour journey. The windows and shutters had to remain closed, to hide the 
fact that the train was carrying civilians. We knew that even if we wrote “CHILDREN” on 
the train, that they would shoot. In fact, we had heard that the Russians were specifically 
targeting vehicles and buildings marked as hiding places for children. 
 
People were sitting on their suitcases, lining the narrow corridors. There was no way to get 
to the toilet or to move around. In each compartment, at least ten people squished 
themselves into two bunks and on the floor. In our compartment, we had four children on 
the top bunk and three mothers with small children on the bottom bunk. At each station, 
volunteers gave us water bottles and sweets for the children, as we didn’t have any 
provisions on the train. We were all dehydrated and starving, and it was hot and stuffy. 
There were five hundred people in our car, and we couldn’t get out to get some fresh air. A 
lot of people got sick with fevers and coughs, and many people fainted from the lack of 
oxygen. Ambulances waited for us at each station. The train staff were very kind and 
helpful and tried to do whatever they could. Even though they couldn’t get through the 
wagons, they would pass out cups of tea from volunteers through the crowd.  
 
We stopped for ten hours at the Polish border, but at least we could get out and stretch our 
legs. I was shocked by how organized the local volunteers were. The entire village on the 



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Polish side of the border seemed to have been transformed into a humanitarian aid center. 
As we left the train, we walked down a corridor of stalls run by villagers, who offered us 
hot meals, water, medications, clothes, baby strollers, medical attention, a bed for the night, 
whatever we needed. They gave sweets and toys to the children; mine still keep their 
stuffed animals with them as good luck charms.  
 
Afterward, everyone had to load back into the train for the rest of the journey. My sister’s 
husband picked us up in Przemyśl. They had been waiting for a whole day in the car, as it 
was nearly impossible at that time to predict when the trains from Ukraine would arrive.  
 
Looking back now, I can’t believe that my family and I made it through such a horrible 
journey. I never want to ride a train again for as long as I live. My daughter is so 
traumatized by the ordeal that she refuses to even get into a city tram.  
 
Soon after we arrived in Warsaw, I took my daughter to our local church. She prayed that 
Russia would leave her country alone, that their soldiers would stop fighting us, and that 
her dad would be safe and healthy.  
 
I am especially concerned about the impact of this war on young children, both in Russia 
and in Ukraine. From such a young age, they are desensitized to images of war. They will 
not remember a time when bloodshed was not a daily norm. The notion of a war like this 
will not be as shocking to them as they grow up, and they may be more likely to join one in 
the future. I see it in my own children: my son can recognize and name different missiles, 
which never interested him before. When a rocket hit the playground of my children’s 
preschool back home, I couldn’t fathom how to explain it to them. They asked me, “why 
would the soldiers want to fight kids?” 

 
…. 

 
Inna’s husband is still working in Odesa, and many of her friends and family members have 

chosen to remain in Ukraine. I asked Inna about the current situation in her hometown and in 
other cities across the country. 

 
Back home, the citizens of Odesa have gotten used to the war. Many people have remained 
in the city, and most people are working as normal. It’s important that people are unafraid 
to go to their jobs, keep the economy afloat, and produce supplies for the army and the 
home front. At this point, whoever hasn’t evacuated is likely going to see it through to the 
end. Civilians in Odesa are helping the army by organizing their own volunteer brigades 
which defend the city’s borders and set up blockades. This is happening in cities and towns 
across the country.  
 
The attacks come in waves, but it was particularly bad over Easter weekend (April 15-17). 
We saw on the news that a mother and three-month-old baby had been killed in the 
shelling of an apartment building. They are definitely targeting civilian infrastructure: 
homes, student dorms, churches, and the most populated workplaces. They are using 
Crimea to export all that they have stolen back to Russia, from wheat to toilet seats. They 



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take whatever they can carry. There is no gas at all in the city, but there is water and 
electricity, which we are also supplying to Mykolaiv [the region directly east of Odesa] as it 
defends us from the Russian army’s land advances.  
 
My husband is still working at the aviation facility to produce parts for Ukrainian fighter 
planes. The Russians bombed the airport and his workplace twice. Miraculously, he was not 
in the building both times. He is still living in our home, but he sleeps in the front hallway, 
fully clothed, with his gun at his side. From our balcony, you can see the Russian war ships 
just off the coastline, periodically shooting rockets at the city. There are estimated to be 
around fifty ships and three submarines.  
 
When I talk to my husband, he is never able to give any concrete information about the war 
in the city. The government has asked civilians not to spread information about the 
locations of hit targets, or to share photos or videos, as the enemy can use them to 
strategize further attacks.  
 
I have many friends who are fighting for our freedom, and morale is high. The people 
believe in victory and are unafraid to sacrifice everything for it. For example, I could tell 
you about my husband’s close friend Ivan, a pilot in the air force, who was captured after 
his plane was shot down on March 8. Everyone else on the plane was killed, and Ivan was 
seriously wounded. The Russians took him to their prison and called his wife, telling her 
that her husband was a POW and could be released for ransom. They said they would 
contact her soon with details, but that she was to tell no one about the situation. 
Meanwhile, they sent a video of Ivan lying on a stretcher, clearly in critical condition, 
having suffered serious burns, a head injury, and a broken leg. He read off a script to the 
camera, saying that he was safe and being treated very well. His wife heard nothing else for 
two weeks, when Ivan finally called her from a POW camp in Russia. He told her not to send 
any money. It was a common scam that soldiers were using to make some extra cash. He 
would wait for an upcoming prisoner exchange.  
 
Ivan first had the opportunity to be exchanged for a Russian pilot who was notorious for 
shooting at apartment buildings and killing many civilians. Ivan refused, as he did not want 
such a war criminal to be released on his account. Eventually, he agreed to be exchanged 
for a pilot who had only been involved in military skirmishes, and he was taken to Kyiv for 
complex surgeries. When Ivan was finally reunited with his wife, he told her, “The war is 
not hell. The POW camp is hell.” The Russians filmed themselves torturing prisoners and 
posted the videos on social media. They took turns jumping on Ivan’s broken leg. They 
starved them and kept them in squalor.  
 
When I heard about Ivan’s experience, it was a breaking point for me. I no longer knew 
about war crimes just from stories on the news but from a close friend’s personal 
experience. I had to come face to face with the inhumanity of the Russian army. There can 
be no forgiveness for this war. Human beings cannot do this to one another. Somehow, the 
Ukrainian soldiers are able to treat their POWs according to international conventions and 
even give them compensation for throwing down their weapons. War is hell, but there is a 
way for an army to maintain some standard of humanity in combat.  



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Ivan and a fellow POW following their release from the POW camp in Russia 
 
I could also tell you about my cousin from Donbas, who has lived in a war since 2014. A 
month before the invasion, he fled to Mariupol. After the war started, he was stuck in 
Mariupol for a long time, but he managed to escape to Zaporizhia in a humanitarian bus. He 
finds himself in an awful predicament. He wants to join the Ukrainian army, but his family 
is in occupied Donbas, in which men are being drafted into the Russian army, forced to fight 
their own people. If my cousin were sent to the front, he could very well end up fighting 
against his own father.  
 
My aunt and uncle live in Borodyanka [50 kilometers northwest of Kyiv], one of the cities 
which was under heavy attack. First, the invaders killed all the local men with military 
experience or connections. Then, they killed anyone they found.  
 
My family lived in their basement for weeks, terrified to leave the house, as people were 
being shot at random in the streets and houses were being looted. They had to live on 
whatever they had in the pantry, and their only source of water was their well. They were 
lucky to have a well; many people in the city died of thirst, because there was no running 
water in the city. Their neighbors cut their daughters’ hair short and dressed them up like 
boys, so that they would be less likely to be raped if soldiers found them. Because phone 
connection was disrupted, their son couldn’t contact his parents for weeks during the 
occupation. He had no idea whether they were alive or dead. My uncle had a heart attack 
because of all the stress.  



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There are thousands of stories like ours, and we are the lucky ones. Millions are no longer 
able to share their stories.  
 

…. 
 

Joining us for the interview was Inna’s friend Tatiana, a young woman from Lviv who has 
been living in Warsaw for several years, and who has been organizing humanitarian aid and 

activism since the start of the war. Her brother and his family live in Kyiv. His wife and 
children fled to Poland but have since returned to the city. Her brother stayed behind and is 
among the soldiers defending Kyiv’s borders. Tatiana shared the story of her family’s escape 

and of her friend currently fighting in Donbas. 
 
My sister-in-law and her teenage children lived in an underground parking garage for two 
weeks. The air raid sirens went off so frequently that there was no point going back and 
forth to the eleventh floor of their building. They would just run upstairs from time to time 
to get food and water.  
 
It was impossible to evacuate the city for some time. Like in Odesa, trains were the only 
somewhat safe option, and the platforms were packed to the brim every day. My sister 
tried several times, but she saw the chaos, and she saw how many mothers with babies and 
people in wheelchairs were trying to get on the train. She felt that she could not take the 
place of those who were even more at risk than her and her children.  
 
Finally, she got a call from a priest who was organizing a transport to Lviv by van. They 
knew how dangerous it was to take the roads, but the attack on Kyiv was intensifying, and 
they decided to risk it. They hid in the van with other families. The windows were blacked 
out so that no one could see that it was transporting people. Thankfully, they made it to 
Lviv safely, and then crossed the border to Poland. 
 
Many of my friends from university are fighting in the Ukrainian army. I have daily contact 
with one of them who is on the front lines in Donbas. His mother begged him not to join the 
army, but he told her that he could not possibly hide at home while others are dying for 
their country and even coming back home from abroad to enlist. A few days ago, a rocket 
hit their base, and they had to flee in the middle of the night. All of their weapons and 
supplies were destroyed. They didn’t even have bulletproof vests or boots. They were 
helpless and hiding for a couple of days, but an emergency transport from Lviv reached 
them, and they were able to re-equip their unit. It is amazing how quickly civilians across 
the country are able to mobilize and save countless lives.  
 

…. 
 

At the end of our interview, I was curious to know what Inna thought of the Ukrainian 
government’s reaction to the invasion, and especially of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s 

leadership. I also asked her about the response from other countries. 
 



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I voted for Zelensky in the last elections, and I agree with all of his decisions as our leader. I 
think he is very wise not to accept Putin’s alleged terms for a ceasefire, as it would mean 
surrendering the occupied territories. We are not talking about some peaceful, democratic 
referendum, but brutal colonization. The inhabitants of these regions have made their 
choice very clear. They do not want to be annexed by Russia, and they are willing to pay for 
that choice with their lives. They are already suffering unimaginable horrors or being 
deported en masse to labor camps in Russia, so I do not even want to think of what would 
await them if they were officially handed over to Russia. We’ve seen what has happened in 
Crimea. Zelensky is well aware of this.  
 
As for the reaction of the West, I believe that Poland deserves particular praise for all that 
they have done for our refugees, army, and government. Were it not for Poland, we would 
have been wiped off the map long ago.  
 
In closing, I want to push back on the absurd notion that Russian civilians are not aware of 
the realities of the war. This notion plays exactly into the Kremlin’s hands. By framing the 
invasion as “Putin’s war” alone, it exculpates the majority of Russians, soldiers and civilians 
alike.  
 
Ivan’s story is prime evidence against this lie. The soldiers are in constant contact with 
their girlfriends, wives, and mothers and post public updates on Russian social media. Our 
army is constantly intercepting their communications, and we see that they tell their 
families everything. It seems that it is especially popular for soldiers to send videos of war 
crimes to their loved ones. For example, there were the films of the young man raping and 
killing a baby, and of some soldiers gangraping several women and then running over their 
bodies with a tank, laughing the whole time. I myself have seen how my Russian family and 
friends have completely cut off contact with us since the start of the war, because they are 
convinced that Ukraine must be “denazified” and that the ends justify their army’s means. 
Even children in preschools are now being indoctrinated about this “heroic” war against 
the “nationalist terrorists.” Believing in the ignorance of the Russian public at large is 
simply believing Kremlin propaganda. Russia knows what is going on. The responsibility is 
on individuals to actively oppose the war.  
 
I want to stress that the Ukrainian army is not the aggressor in this conflict. They are 
defending their country from annihilation and defending women and children who are 
constantly being targeted. It is absolutely imperative for the West to support Ukraine 
militarily, and for neighboring countries to prepare their own defenses. Putin’s plan was 
never to stop with Ukraine. If Ukraine falls, then he will move on to the next, and the next, 
and the next.  

 
 

To find out more about how to support Ukraine through donations, volunteering, or activism,  
visit the government’s official webpage at https://war.ukraine.ua/support-ukraine, or visit 

www.defendukraine.org for a list of verified fundraisers and charities. 

https://war.ukraine.ua/support-ukraine
http://www.defendukraine.org/

