'Dad, will they shoot us? Will they kill us? Will they destroy us? Will they throw a missile on us?'

The harrowing account of one family fleeing Kyiv

I had another interview with people in Ukraine. This is the account, told through a translator, of one family’s harrowing escape from Kyiv to western Ukraine.

I awoke at 4 a.m. when the bombing started. The rest of my family – my wife and two kids – were still asleep.

Immediately I had anxiety – I understood by the sound that something serious was happening. A series of explosions rocked the early morning air.

And then I jumped out of my bed and realized we needed to pack. At that moment, I heard the sound of a missile that flew over our house toward the airport. I never heard that sound before. It felt as if all of my inner organs stopped functioning.

Our younger son awoke and got out of his bed. “Dad, what is that?”

I told him, “it’s just an airplane,” because I saw that he was scared.

My wife was sick with covid and sound asleep. I told her, “Wake up, Putin is bombarding Kyiv.” And she got up like a soldier—all straight lines. At that moment, I realized covid was over for her.

Our older son heard me talking to her. So he ran to our younger son to tell him that Putin was bombarding Kyiv.

The younger one was so scared. But he was also like a little soldier, standing straight. I went to him. He said, “Dad, is it a dream?”

When we drove to see relatives outside Kyiv, a one-hour drive took five because of all the people leaving. On the way, jets flew so low over the road. It was so scary to be in that car with the sound of the jets right above your head.

We didn’t know what was going to happen. Our older son kept asking me, “Dad, will they shoot us? Will they kill us? Will they destroy us? Will they throw a missile on us?”

The younger one was silent, quiet, all the way, because he was so scared.

When we finally arrived at our relatives at 10 p.m., he slept until 4 p.m. the next day. After that, I knew I needed to take the children somewhere far.