A 98-year-old Ukrainian girl has mentioned she walked 10km (six miles) beneath shelling to flee the Russia-controlled area of Donetsk.
Utilizing strolling sticks to help her, Lidia Stepanivna says she fell a number of instances throughout her journey from Ocheretyne and was compelled to sleep on the bottom
“I survived that battle [Second World War], and I’m surviving this battle,” she mentioned.
Ms Stepanivna mentioned she had no meals or water, however that her “character” stored her going as she tried to succeed in areas managed by Kyiv.
In a video posted on-line by Ukraine’s police, she is proven sitting on a mattress in a shelter, wearing an outsized coat and a shawl tied on her head, a picket stick nonetheless in her hand.
“I am left with nothing,” she mentioned.
“However I left my Ukraine on toes.”
Ms Stepanivna shares a joke with a Ukrainian officer
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She mentioned the battle Russia was waging towards her nation was nothing just like the Second World Struggle.
“Homes are burning and timber are being uprooted,” she mentioned.
Ukraine’s inside ministry mentioned in an announcement that the lady was found by Ukraine’s army within the night, earlier than being handed to the police, who took her to a shelter for evacuees.
“Regulation enforcement officers are on the lookout for the lady’s family members,” the ministry mentioned.
It was not instantly clear when she was found.
The battle, now in its third yr, has killed hundreds on either side and turned Ukrainian cities and villages into rubble and displaced tens of millions of individuals.