A train filled with trauma as some Ukrainians make a perilous journey back

For Anna Bloshenko, that’s not an option. She, son Pavel, husband Artem and father Yuri, who is disabled, finally got out of Mariupol two weeks ago.

“We were going to the basement, but in the last couple of days before we left, it was scary to go to the basement, we had no strength, it seemed that we were going to the grave.”

Her husband, a civil engineer, worked at a large steel manufacturing plant in Mariupol, one of the largest in Europe. It was heavily damaged on March 20.

“Emotionally, you are scared all the time,” said Anna. “Shots, rockets, bombs, those sounds of war, they did not stop.”

She believed they’d never escape alive.

“Everyone thought that,” she explained. “There were moments when we thought it would be better if some rocket fell and killed us, as long as it happened fast, because we saw many deaths, lots of destruction.”