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A Pregnant Nigerian woman, who simply gave her name as Josephine, has narrated her ordeal in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, saying she stood for 6hrs in an evacuation train leaving Kyiv for Lviv when the opportunity came.
Josephine said her experience was more harrowing because she was pregnant and had to be more careful to avoid a breakdown or bring any harm to her unborn child.
According to her: “I lived in Kyiv, the nation’s capital and the tension was higher there because it is the major target of the Russian troops. They believe if they can gain control of the capital city, displacing the President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, would be easier.
“Remember, Putin had called for the Ukrainian military to oust him through a coup, to enable him to influence the emergence of a pliable president. So, I’m happy I made it out of Kyiv alive.
“Before the issue escalated, I got calls from both home and abroad asking me to leave but I felt it was more dangerous to be on the run and accidentally run into the gunfire or the missiles. That was why I didn’t leave on time.”
Narrating her torturous but successful journey to the Polish border, she said: “By the time I boarded the train, all the seats were occupied, so I had to take a standing position for the six-hour ride.
“The story is easy to tell now but the experience wasn’t easy by any means. It’s tough for a physically fit person to stand in a moving bus for six hours not to talk of someone who is pregnant and is in her third trimester.
“When I arrived in Lviv, I boarded a bus at 3 am going to the border and we didn’t get there until 10 am. It took that long because of the heavy gridlock on the way. From Poland, I went further to Hungary and made my way to the Nigerian Embassy in Budapest.”
Josephine feared that many Nigerians might be stranded in Ukraine, but she expressed hope that they would escape the attack.
On Tuesday, a 22-year-old Indian medical student, Naveen Gyanagoudar, was killed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, when he left the bunker he had been staying in to buy food.
Similarly, no fewer than 47 persons were reportedly killed in Chernihiv on Thursday and Friday following airstrikes by the Russian forces on high-rise apartments, clinics and a hospital.
Several persons, including three Ukrainian troops, were also said to have been killed following an attack on Ukraine’s nuclear plant.