My experience in the ongoing Russian Ukraine conflict.

My name is Gladys. I schooled and lived in Ukraine. I am married to Professor Ibrahim Abdullahi Iliya and have two daughters who are Ukrainian citizens by birth. I am a Medical Doctor by profession (Gynecologist) and have a registered business in Kyiv Ukraine by the name “Ibrange Cafe and African Shop” and “Ibrange Hostel”.

Am a third year student of National aerospace university, kharkiv aviation institute Kharkov. Been alive today to tell my story to the world about my experience in the on-going Russia Ukraine conflict can be considered a miracle and God’s grace in my life and the life of my friends. When I do watch Hollywood action war movies I use to think the missiles and guns in the movie and destruction of buildings and properties in movies were all fiction and just blue screen effect, I never understood that these kind of scenes truly happen in life not until I experience one myself. On the 24th of February 2024 around 4am we were woken up by an explosion which was very loud and terrifying, as at the time the first explosion happened we all woke up confuse not knowing what we all heard, until the second explosion took place not very far from my hostel apartment and shook the ten story building causing cars security alarm sounding everywhere, that was when we realized that the city was under attack by the Russians. Few hours later when we were still thinking and confuse on what to do the third explosion sounded, this time around we got a message from the building commandant/security that we should take all our important document properties and move to the basement of the building which we all did. In the hostel we were more than 100 student’s residing there, we all had to figure out ways to make the basement take each and every one of us by sharing camp beds and blankets spread on the floor. Few hours later, we got information that we should leave the building and move to another building just 15min away that the basement of the hostel is not safe enough, we then parked our belongings and went to the new building that has a stronger basement/bomb shelter. During the process of packing, the bombings and missiles short into the city became intense that we could not take water or food alongside with us, as we were running from the hostel to the other building we were hearing sounds of fighter jets flying in the sky and sounds of missiles flying with continuous loud explosion in the sky like the missiles are been intersected and they were shooting at each other in the sky. When we got to the building we met other Ukrainians there who were taking shelter there running from the bombs also, we had no option than to stay in the shelter with them which was very tight. In there, beds were not provided for people to sleep on because there was no space, we all had to sit on wooden chairs so tight that some people had to either sit on the floor or stand because there was no space inside the basement, the Ukrainians inside got so uncomfortable that their kids started crying, the hostel officials that came with us had to ask us to stop talking and go occupy the other half of the bomb shelter because we are making the white kids uncomfortable.

During these hours we’ve all stayed without food or water, the evenings came and we were all hungry not having idea on what to eat or how to go out to look for food. Inside the bomb shelter we kept on hearing the sounds of missiles and bombs exploding from a distance. Later around 10pm when the explosion reduce, the hostel officials went outside to look for food for us to eat. They later came back with banana and biscuit, they gave each of us one banana and two pieces of biscuit only without water, much later they brought two litters of coke about 4 for almost hundreds of us to share by taking just little. With the tension all over the place and we been scared if we going get out of this alive we then heard from some of the students saying that they got information from unknown source that my school and the hostel is one of the areas that the Russians selected as one of their targeted buildings that they want to destroy. We spent the night inside the bomb shelter without having 20min of sleep because there was no bed and no way to rest our backs. The day was so cold with temperature reading -2 during the day and -6 during the night time, and there was no heater in the bomb shelter no means to keep us warm, we all stayed till morning cold and freezing up. As at about 11am the next day we were all asked to go back to the hostel so we can get water to drink and try to make something to eat. When we got back to the hostel we were told that if we hear sounds of missiles flying or gunshot we should run to the basement of the hostel and stay there until the bombing reduces. We hurriedly tried to cook something to eat, but then 1hr later we were asked to move to the hostel basement that information came that the Russians are going to send missiles in few minutes time, I had to remove the rice I was cooking half cooked served it inside a plate with water and ran to the basement. We stayed in the basement like that till the next day, this time around we had to spend the night in the hostel basement, because the Ukrainians were complaining about sharing the bomb shelter with us and also we were scared of walking the 15min distance because we don’t know where missiles might fall on. Still inside the basement with temperature below zero, this time around we were lucky to have blankets to cover but this could not prevent the cold, this was still another cold night without heater and good sleep because we were all trying to stay alert. From the third day of the invasion some of the students got so scared because many were already lacking food and running out of water, later that day light went off, there was no means to charge our phones so they decided to take the risk of leaving the hostel to the train station to board a train to the western part of Ukraine where they can be able to take a bus to cross over to other European countries.

Because of the peace talks that they said that was going to take place I had to stay back with some other Nigerian students and other international students hoping that there will be a ceasefire that day once they come to an agreement, little did we know that the fight was going to get intense that day. The fourth day came we the Nigerian students left decided to take the risk and leave that day, but we could not get a taxi to take all of us to the train station so only few left that day, meanwhile the price of taxis also went up ten times higher than the normal price. We continued the routing of going up during the day once the shelling’s reduce to look for something to cook and eat, as at this time we already ran out of drinking water, so we were drinking water from the tap which was not clean, still there was no light we kept on walking inside the darkness robing hands on walls to find our way because we had to turn our phones off to save battery in order to be able to communicate with our parents and loved once, we then also went to search each and every room of the students that left already to look for food to eat, because all the shops around were empty already and we were running out of food already. On the fifth day during the hours we do climb out of the basement to get some food, we came out as usual, we were then welcomed by Ukrainian military men who entered the hostel that they were searching for Russians that escaped during a gun battle and entered residential buildings, the sight of the heavy guns that they were carrying made us scared so we decided to leave the next day since they have started entering residential buildings. Every hour of the day we kept on hearing missiles flying above our heads and explosions. On the sixth day while we were preparing to leave for the train station that was the morning that the fight got more intense that a missile flew very close to my hostel and destroyed a building there, I was not myself again with the sound so close that it affected my hearing and the shock of how close it was got me scared, I ran back inside the basement every one of us that wanted to leave that day had to stay back inside the basement. That evening we could not sleep at all because of the fear that the hostel was the building they were targeting but then they miss and blew up another building. We had this thought inside of us due to the speculation of the school been a target that we heard earlier. On the seventh day of the invasion we the Nigerians left, eleven of us decided to leave that morning that it is better we try to leave than to remain in that building which we are scared might be blown up, luckily for us we got a ride from some Ukrainians who use the foreign students official’s cars in my school, who then took turns to take us to the train station. Immediately we got to the train station several missiles flew above our head landed in the residential buildings around the train station destroying the buildings, everyone stated running to the metro station to take cover, after some few hours we came back up to wait for the train, as we were standing there waiting for train to come we kept on hearing the sounds of missiles inside the sky and fighter jet flying all over us, explosions sounding so loud around the train station.

The first train came around 11am we tried to enter but the policemen and some Ukrainian men controlling the crowed pushed us back, saying the train is for women and children only, that was how we missed that train. The second train came in 2hrs later, hoping we will make it inside same thing happened again, we were pushed back again that the train is meant for women and children only we got confused not knowing what to do. We can’t go back to the hostel anymore if we can’t get train that evening, the only thing we will be able to do is to sleep outside or inside the metro which is filled already with people running from the shelling’s. Later that evening the third train came, same thing was about to happen so we had to fight our way in, among the eleven Nigerian students that were with me only three of us were able to make it in. when we got inside the train we could not find space to sit or sleep because the train was over filled, that was how we had to stand for 32 hours without food and sleep, we had to drink dirty water from the train tap. The journey was meant to last for 18 hours but because the train was a slow train it took us that long to get to safety. When we got to the west part of Ukraine the night of the next day, we could not get a train or bus that night anymore to the border to cross over to another country we had to spend the night inside the train station till the next day morning before we were able to get a car to take us to the border were we were able to successfully cross over to another European country. Right now we are currently in Slovakia where we are been hosted by some pastor who was contacted by the Nongovernmental Organization FOREIGN STRANDED NIGERIANS AID (FSND) to give us shelter until they could find solution to get us back on our feet, so far so good he has been trying his best to see how we can be comfortable until the whole situation dies down hopefully. FSND has been trying their best to see how they can go about we getting back on our feet to continue our studies which has not yet yielded a result yet. Hopefully I believe and trust they will be able to help us with the resources they are gathering, if it wasn’t for FSND we wouldn’t have been able to locate the shelter we are in right now. The organization has been of great help to lot of Nigerians to finding their way to safety, the president make sure to always contact us on regular bases to know how we doing in terms of living condition. I have roughly one year and some months left in my studies and can’t imagine how my dreams are been delayed right now. I don’t know how the possibility of going back to school is going to be. We just paid fees, so getting money to transfer to another school right now is difficult not to talk about how we can be able to see money for our daily up keep in the country we are right now, the country is way expensive and it’s difficult to rent apartment here, prices of things have gone up, due to the conflict and because we are blacks most of the service we go out to ask for are been denied of us. The matter of racism is for real, though not everyone experienced it. Most times in this hard times when everyone is trying to run to safety, they prioritize the white people asking the blacks to stay behind the lines.

One of the Nigerian student that was with me was hit on the face so had when he was trying to board the train, even at the border the blacks were made to stand on a different line for a long time while they attend to the Ukrainians. After arrival into the country we tried to board a train to the city capital to meet with our contact, we were told that the train was free for all people fleeing the war from Ukraine, on getting there we met a different outcome, the receptionist asked us to show our Ukrainian documents which we did, after that she now said we still have to pay for the train, we then asked her but its free for people fleeing the war, how come you asking us to pay 18euros each, she now replied that we are not Ukrainian citizens, which was not the information we got initially. We had to stand there looking for ways to pay, luckily for us one of the guys had a dollar account card we had to start calling friends and family for help to send money into the card so we can pay for the train. After making payment we got the ticket and entered the train to the city we were going to for safety. There’s a lot to be said but I have to end the story here because of time. For those people who are still in Ukraine it is better for them to leave now that they have the time. I understand some people ran to the central part of Ukraine and the western part which has not experienced shelling’s yet, but with the recent attack on the western part of the country it is advisable for everyone mostly foreigners to leave the country to other European countries that are safe, as long as you have your international passport and Ukraine resident permit you will be allowed to enter any of the European country for 3months, if you have a permanent resident permit you will be giving 1 year of temporary resident permit with working permit. As for those people who don’t have valid Ukraine documents, with your international passport you can also cross over to other European country, and also for those who don’t have biometric passport with your Ukrainian documents you can cross over to any of the European country but you will have 15days permit to stay, within these days you are expected to locate your embassy in that country and renew your passport. In many of the countries you are expected to go to the police or immigration office depending on the country for documentation and address registration. Information can be gotten from the immigration website of any of the European countries. There are lot of fake information everywhere, so it’s better you get information from the countries official website or locate their offices to get the right information.