{"id":55656,"date":"2022-03-07T21:20:06","date_gmt":"2022-03-07T19:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/?p=55656"},"modified":"2022-03-07T19:34:17","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T17:34:17","slug":"zimbabwean-student-narrates-escape-from-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zimbabwean-student-narrates-escape-from-ukraine","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwean Student Narrates Escape From Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>A 19-year-old Zimbabwean student who escaped the war in Ukraine says she \u201cstill wants to run\u201d when she hears a siren.<\/p>\n

Blessing Mushipe is a medical student at Karazin National University in Kharkiv, Ukraine\u2019s second-largest city close to the Russian border.<\/p>\n

She was forced to flee Ukraine with her colleagues when Russia invaded its neighbour by land, sea and air on 24 February.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Sunday Mail in a telephone interview from the Polish capital of Warsaw on Friday, Mushipe narrated how they escaped from Ukraine and also revealed the hostility black people faced from Ukrainian soldiers. She said:<\/p>\n

I still want to run whenever I hear a siren. When we were still in Ukraine, a siren meant we had to rush to the basement for safety.<\/p>\n

When news of the war started filtering in, I left Kharkiv where our university is.<\/p>\n

There was nothing happening there at the time, but we left hastily, there was no time to pack and I left a lot behind.<\/p>\n

By the time we left, there had not been bombings where we were but we would hear distant sound blasts on occasions<\/p>\n

Mushipe travelled to Lviv, a city in the western part of Ukraine, to pick a friend who would be her companion on the journey to the Medyka border with Poland. She said:<\/p>\n

Soldiers would not allow black people on trains. We wanted to board a train to the border and on three occasions we were told that black people were not allowed.<\/p>\n

Soldiers were saying only women and children can pass. However, if you were a black woman, they would ask you to disembark.<\/p>\n

We were saved by the bus driver at one checkpoint when he lied that we had agreed to donate blood to the Ukrainian soldiers. That is how we were granted passage.<\/p>\n

The bus driver left us at the first checkpoint towards the border and we had to finish the rest of the journey on foot.<\/p>\n

Mushipe said they travelled on foot for the rest of the journey to the Polish border, a distance of 20 kilometres. She said:<\/p>\n

We waited in the queue from 4 pm to around midnight. The queues were moving, but soldiers would come and pluck you out and send you to the back shouting the words \u2018black\u2019 \u2018black\u2019 in their language.<\/p>\n

We were only allowed to cross at midnight, but our black counterparts who were male were denied entry.<\/p>\n

After crossing the border into Poland, Mushipe and her female colleagues received some provisions from the Zimbabwean Government and a few Poland based well-wishers. Added Mushipe:<\/p>\n

We have been well taken care of here in Poland\u2026 we got here and there was a boarding house which was booked.<\/p>\n

We also have food and all the basic supplies we may need, which were organised by the Embassy.<\/p>\n

Our tickets are being processed, and we will be travelling back home soon.<\/p>\n

Russian tanks and armoured columns crossed the border into Ukraine on 24 February in what President Vladimir Putin called a special military operation.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s unprovoked attack on a sovereign country has created a humanitarian crisis, with more than 1.5 million refugees flooding Ukraine\u2019s neighbours, with over 50 per cent moving to Poland.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. A 19-year-old Zimbabwean student who escaped the war in Ukraine says she \u201cstill wants to run\u201d when she hears a siren. Blessing Mushipe is a medical student at Karazin National University in Kharkiv, Ukraine\u2019s second-largest city close to the Russian border. She was forced to flee Ukraine with her colleagues when Russia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":55655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,35,15],"tags":[1493,2189,532,773,267,8556,19,8888],"class_list":{"0":"post-55656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-community","9":"category-homepage-english","10":"category-twitter","11":"tag-africa-press","12":"tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","13":"tag-racism","14":"tag-russia","15":"tag-students","16":"tag-ukraine","17":"tag-zimbabwe","18":"tag-zimbabwean-students-in-russia"},"yoast_head":"\nZimbabwean Student Narrates Escape From Ukraine - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A 19-year-old Zimbabwean student who escaped the war in Ukraine says she \u201cstill wants to run\u201d when she hears a siren. 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