WAR IN UKRAINE

‘There might not be a city for my family to return to’

Vova, ten, with his father Ivan Drahun at his mother’s graveside in Bucha. She died while the family were sheltering in a cold basement during the Russian occupation of the town, which is at the centre of a war crimes inquiry, 15 miles outside Kyiv
Vova, ten, with his father Ivan Drahun at his mother’s graveside in Bucha. She died while the family were sheltering in a cold basement during the Russian occupation of the town, which is at the centre of a war crimes inquiry, 15 miles outside Kyiv
EMILIO MORENATTI/AP
Richard Spencer
, Odesa
The Times

The escape from the Russian occupiers was terrifying. As the car crossed into no man’s land it was shaking under the waves of shell blasts.

Maria Dianova, her parents, husband and two children were at the end of a ten-hour journey in a huge loop round the city of Kherson. All day they had been driving from Russian checkpoint to Russian checkpoint, trying to find a way out of the city through the surrounding countryside and into Ukrainian-held territory.

Men were forced to take off their shirts to be inspected for tattoos that might give away a military background. Some reported having all their money taken along with electronic devices such as laptops.

Dianova, 32, became convinced that the column of cars trying to flee