Woman, 98, 'walks six miles amid shelling' to escape Russia-controlled Ukraine
Lidia Stepanivna says she fell several times during her journey and slept on the ground, but adds: "I survived that war [Second World War], and I am surviving this war."
Tuesday 30 April 2024 12:15, UK
A 98-year-old Ukrainian woman has said she walked 10km (six miles) under shelling to escape the Russia-controlled region of Donetsk.
Using walking sticks to support her, Lidia Stepanivna says she fell several times during her journey from Ocheretyne and was forced to sleep on the ground.
"I survived that war [Second World War], and I am surviving this war," she said.
Ms Stepanivna said she had no food or water, but that her "character" kept her going as she tried to reach areas controlled by Kyiv.
In a video posted online by Ukraine's police, she is shown sitting on a bed in a shelter, dressed in an oversized coat and a scarf tied on her head, a wooden stick still in her hand.
"I'm left with nothing," she said.
"But I left my Ukraine on feet."
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She said the war Russia was waging against her country was nothing like the Second World War.
"Houses are burning and trees are being uprooted," she said.
Ukraine's interior ministry said in a statement that the woman was discovered by Ukraine's military in the evening, before being handed to the police, who took her to a shelter for evacuees.
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"Law enforcement officers are looking for the woman's relatives," the ministry said.
It was not immediately clear when she was discovered.
The war, now in its third year, has killed thousands on both sides and turned Ukrainian cities and villages into rubble and displaced millions of people.