How did they manage not to be seen?
Igor and Zhu-Zhu are respectively owner and dog running away from Mariupol managing to escape the Russian checkpoints surrounding the Ukrainian city. They walked 225 kilometers, always together, in order to finally save themselves, becoming practically invisible in front of the many Russian soldiers who still surround the city.
Igor Pedin is a 61-year-old man who, after more than two and a half months of war in Ukraine, has decided to leave his city, Mariupol, still besieged by the Russian army. He walked for 225 kilometers, the distance that separates Rome from Naples so to speak. And he reached the city of Zaporizhzhia. But he wasn’t alone.
On his long journey to safety, Igor Pedin also brought his own Zhu Zhu with him 9 year old terrier with whom he shared the house, now destroyed by Russian bombs. The two left their home on April 23, when the Russians were about to enter house to house to kill anyone who came within range.
For Igor and Zhu Zhu it was not easy, since not being seen by the Russian invaders who were barricading the city was not easy. They must have been invisible to the soldiers from Moscow and walked non-stop, him with a 50-kilo backpack on his shoulders.
They had to avoid Russian soldiers, mines left in the street, but also the corpses of their fellow citizens who died under the blows of the Russians. They met some soldiers, but to them he was a tramp with his dog.
I was nothing. I left the city, turned around and looked at Mariupol: I told myself it was the right decision to say goodbye.
Owner and dog run away from Mariupol and are now finally safe
While fleeing, they also came across a Chec point of Chechen soldiers.
They asked me where I was going and then I was taken back to Nikolske. Inside an office, a Russian officer questioned me. I lied to him, told him I had a stomach ulcer and had to go to Zaporizhzhia because I paid for the treatment. Then they made me strip for tattoos, they thought I had a gun with me due to a bruise on my back.
The military sent him away by threatening him with death and giving him a document of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. And with that sheet they passed the checks. Then they finally reached the city where they now live safely.
#Owner #dog #run #Mariupol #Curler