A Kiev man says he is willing to defend Ukraine and is trying to move his 11-year-old daughter to safety amid the ongoing Russian attack on Ukraine.
Sergii Putsov said in an interview with Global News’ Crystal Goomansingh on Sunday that he has been driving 26 hours non-stop from Ukraine’s capital Kiev to Lviv in the west to help his daughter reach Poland.
“We have a 30-kilometer line of cars from the border. Now there are about 100,000 people crossing the border in different ways, on foot, by car or by train. So it’s not so easy to do it,” Putsov said.
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Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has entered its fourth day. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces described it on Sunday as “a difficult time” as Russian troops “continue shelling in almost all directions.”
Putsov has set out to move his daughter and her mother to Poland, where they can be safe.
According to the UN refugee agency, nearly 120,000 people have fled Ukraine so far, to Poland and other neighboring countries.
The agency expects up to four million Ukrainians to flee if the situation deteriorates further.
Those arriving are mostly women, children and the elderly. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy banned the departure of men of military age between 18 and 60 under a declaration of martial law.
People wait to cross passport control after arriving on a train from Kiev at Przemysl main train station on February 27, 2022 in Przemysl, Poland.
(Photo by Omar Marques/Getty Images)
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Putsov is a fitness trainer and professional weightlifter who has served in the Ukrainian forces in the past. He knows he has a duty to serve when called up, but for now he wants to get his daughter to safety.
“I’m not willing to pick up a gun and shoot now…but if I get in line, of course, I will defend myself,” he said. “We understand that this is our land. We understand that we have the right to be free like other people and to live on our land.”
A fierce battle was raging Sunday in Kharkiv, where Russian troops blew up a natural gas pipeline before dawn, according to the Ukrainian state agency.
Until Sunday, Russian troops had remained on the outskirts of Kharkiv, a city of 1.4 million people about 20 km south of the Russian border, as other forces pushed deeper into their offensive in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, in the capital, Kiev, where a curfew has been extended until Monday, fighting has subsided and Ukrainian forces are resisting the Russian offensive.
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“I believe that people will fight to the last drop of blood,” Putsov said.
He also said that people who are not fighting are also helping in other ways.
“Today my girlfriend and I spent a few hours taking clothes to people who have just arrived (in Lviv) from different parts of Ukraine,” Putsov said.
He said he is not a “big fan of God” and does not want people to just pray for Ukraine.
“If you want to help, do something, burn Russian flags…. Go and do some action. Ask your government for help,” Putsov said.
– With files from Crystal Goomansingh, Saba Aziz, Reuters, The Associated Press, Reuters.
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