A father hugs his six-year-old daughter Dasha, his face contorted with emotion.
Roman Overchenko, 32, a sales manager from Poltava in central Ukraine, said goodbye to his family early yesterday morning before leaving to join volunteers who are fighting Vladimir Putinthe advancing army.
Wrapping her arms around his head, Dasha pulls her father to her and refuses to let him go, the hug is so stretched and touchingly touching that it stops passers-by on the central backbone of Lviv, Svobody Boulevard.
Roman Overchenko, 32, a sales manager from Poltava in central Ukraine, said goodbye to his family early yesterday morning before leaving to join volunteers fighting Vladimir Putin’s advancing army.
He then confronts two-year-old Margo, wrapped in sub-zero temperatures in her polka dot wool hat and silver coat.
His wife, 30-year-old Eugenia, who couldn’t stand to watch, bowed her head a few feet away, pinching her nose as if to stop the flow of tears.
A young woman, Anna, who runs a cafe in front of the Opera, puts her hand on her chin and mutters, “My God.”
When he expected this goodbye, Roman promised himself that he would be strong for his little girls. But what follows did not survive.
Now Dasha has squeezed his face and, nose to nose, whispers solemnly, “Don’t go, Dad.” He stands up and steps back, turning his head to gather himself, swallowing hard.
Even in this sad city, a crossroads for refugees and full of heartbreaking farewells, some scenes still have the power to startle – and make one contemplate with renewed anger both the cost of war and, says Anna, shaking her head and tears. “What exactly is going on in Vladimir Putin’s head?”
When he expected this goodbye, Roman promised himself that he would be strong for his little girls. But what follows did not survive
It’s time for Eugenia to say goodbye to her husband. Together with her daughters and parents, she fled the fighting near their hometown more than 500 miles east.
The couple embraces, exchanging words of consolation, after which Eugenia heads to her father’s golf mansion, packed with bags and suitcases, to join Dasha and Margo in the back seat.
Roman remains standing on the sidewalk of the most elegant street in the city. Now he smiles and waves. The girls wave back. Eventually the car pulls away slowly and Roman follows her progress as he drives through the morning traffic, swollen by fleeing refugees until he disappears.
“Everything was too painful,” he later said. “I knew it would be, but …” His words are lost. When he speaks again, he says: “I had to take my family out. Leaving them alone, not knowing when we will be together again, is hell, but the thought of being hurt in this conflict is even worse.
“I? I’ll be fine. We all will be. Ukraine will never be taken, ever. And with that, he jumped in his own car – and set off for war.
Elsewhere in the city, there were other divisions, but none were as heartbreaking as Roman’s. Thousands continued to drive to the border, causing a 15-mile upheaval.
As always, Lviv’s main railway station was crowded with refugees arriving from the east, mainly from the Kharkiv region. “It never stops – an endless river of people,” said a railway employee.
Of all the dramas of the past week, he added, one stands out above all others. The official said 12-year-old Anna caught a train to Poland on Monday, but was separated from her aunt in the noise of boarding. “The girl got on board, but the aunt failed and remained blocked on the platform,” he explained.
Rushing alone to a foreign land in a carriage full of strangers – and without a cell phone – we can only imagine the student’s panic, but she hardly overshadowed her aunt’s.
“The woman was in despair,” the official said. “She was running up and down the platform, shouting the girl’s name, not knowing at first if she had definitely boarded the train.” About 30 minutes passed while she told her story to one of the official’s colleagues.
A signal and a message were given on the train. A middle-aged woman on board contacted Anna and stayed with her until they reached Przemyśl in Poland, where her mother was waiting, unaware of the unfolding drama. “Everything ended well,” the official said. “But everyone was on the brink of waiting for this happy outcome.”
Meanwhile, Russian forces are bombing parts of Ukraine’s railway network, which appears to be an attempt to thwart the evacuation. Alexander Kamyshin, chairman of Ukraine’s state railways, said: “We continue to repair our infrastructure, but they continue to destroy it. We continue to repair it and make it come under fire, but we continue to run the trains.
He estimates the company has evacuated 670,000 people from some of the worst-hit areas – along with 11,000 cats and dogs – to the west, either directly to the border or to nearby cities such as Lviv or Uzhgorod.