On 24 February 2022, Tetiana woke up to the sound of explosions and immediately thought, "Oh my God, has it really started?" For the previous few days, all she could talk to her friends and family about was the possibility of Russia attacking Ukraine. But it was still hard for Tetiana to believe such savagery could happen in the 21st century.
She went into her living room to find her husband already awake. Soon, the whole street had woken up. There were nonstop phone calls and messages. Everyone was in shock. Tetiana didn't know what to do, even though she had been packing her go bag for over a week. Her husband insisted on it.
Tetyana's husband decided to go to work and to play things by ear. Tetiana was scared to death, so he took her and their children to her mother's house on the next street. Her house at least had a good basement, which provided a sort of illusion of safety.
On 1 March, Kharkiv was constantly bombed, and Tetiana's family stayed in the basement all day. In the evening, a rocket attack wiped out a house close by. "I have never experienced such horror in my life! The basement was shaking, the top door was open, and it was incredibly loud. I thought it was the end," Tetiana recalls.
The family stayed in the basement that night, though neither Tetiana nor her husband got any sleep.
In the morning, right after curfew lifted, Tetiana and her husband got into their car and drove home to get their belongings. Then they returned for their kids and left Kharkiv. Tetiana's husband's parents and her mother refused to evacuate.
The trip from Kharkiv was very long. It took the family a week to reach the Polish border.
They first drove 8 hours to Poltava, which would normally take just two hours. The traffic on the road was crazy, as many people had decided to leave that day. The family spent the night in Poltava and set off again in the morning, although they did not know where they were ultimately headed.
A day later, they arrived in Haisyn, Vinnytsia Oblast, where they had booked an apartment, but the owner of the apartment took their advance payment and disappeared. As a result, the family spent the whole day in a café because they had nowhere else to go.
In the evening, a wonderfully generous woman gave them shelter at her home for free. Tetiana's family spent a few days there and then moved on again. The family's next stop was Kropyvnytskyi, and on 8 March they reached Chervonohrad, Lviv Oblast, where they spent the night in a hotel.
The next morning, Tetiana and her children crossed the Polish border. "It was a difficult but well-considered decision. Children shouldn't live in fear!" says Tetiana Korchahina.
After numerous relocations, searching for housing, and working with various volunteers, Tetiana and her children settled in France. Like all Ukrainians, they dream of victory and peace in their homeland.
This material was prepared with financial support from the International Renaissance Foundation.
