Some foreigners are among the people affected by the presence of the Ukrainian army in the residential areas of Mariupol.
Gabriela Gómez, a young Cuban woman who moved to the city a few years ago in search of a quiet life, recounts a nightmare when Ukrainian soldiers used her house as a trench.
“I lived through a nightmare that I never thought I could overcome. Today I only remember the horror I felt in Mariupol,” said Gomez, who is now safe after being evacuated to Russia.
This young woman came to Ukraine in 2019. Previously, she worked at the MSC cruise line, where she met her partner Igor Ivanovich, who suggested that she marry her and live in Mariupol.
A young Cuban tells the nightmare she lived in Mariúpol
Some foreigners are among the people affected by the presence of the Ukrainian army in the residential areas of Mariupol. pic.twitter.com/fdklL2Kdl8
— RT in Spanish (@ActualidadRT) April 30, 2022
When he heard about the military operation in Ukraine on the news, Gómez thought that the authorities would protect them at the beginning of the conflict, but that didn’t happen.
“I couldn’t believe that the Ukrainians were afraid of the Ukrainians themselves, I didn’t know it was the Azov army, I didn’t know it was the DNR, they had to explain it to me.”
On the contrary, the nationalist Azov battalion occupied the top three floors of the building where he lived and threatened them not to leave.
“I couldn’t believe that the Ukrainians were afraid of the Ukrainians themselves, I didn’t know it was the Azov army, I didn’t know it was the DNR, they had to explain it to me,” he detailed that they said after taking the building took away all services: “We had nothing. On March 1, the Ukrainians turned off the electricity; they turned off the electricity, and then turned it on again at 10:00 p.m. at night, and on March 2 they turned it off and it should never come back”.
Gómez says there was a time when it was very dangerous to go out on the streets. “I stopped going into the building where I was cooking and my neighbors came to my house to see me because they thought something had happened to me,” she said.
“We were cut off from communications; if you’re supposed to take care of your people in a war, how do you cut them off?”
“I waited for Ukraine to help me and I kept waiting until the building burned down, they left us without communication. If you’re supposedly worried about your people in a war, how do you keep them incommunicado?
Amidst the tense situation, the young Cuban realized that the Russian army was helping the population while she watched the Ukrainians destroy her city.
“In the end we opened the door because the part where we had to go out was on fire and we realized that the Russian soldiers were not going to shoot us,” he said.
The Russians told them where they could be safe, so they ran to a basement and took refuge there. Days later, they were evacuated from the area and taken to Russia.
“By the time I was in Russia I felt calm because what I really wanted was to go out, I didn’t want to hear any more ‘Samaliot’ as they say, I didn’t want to hear any more bombs, I didn’t want to hear any guns “.
Once safe, her first call was to her mother, who desperately didn’t want to hear from her. “She was hysterical, she didn’t tell me, but then when I spoke to my family, they said, ‘Your mother wouldn’t eat, she couldn’t sleep well’. Pretty difficult for any mother who has a child at risk.”
Now the couple wants to stay in Russia. “I feel at home in Russia. I’m often asked: Why don’t you want to live in Spain or somewhere else? I don’t feel at home there,” Ivanovich said.