“We walked 20 km, aircraft flying overhead, warships attacking everything around us” - Danylo, from Mariupol, 11 yrs old

An Espreso.West journalist listened to his story.

Eleven year old Danylo Shabinskyi now goes to school in Lviv, and enjoys his favorite ballroom dancing lessons. But life for little Danylo looked very different 2 months ago, when he and his family had to flee the besieged Ukrainian city Mariupol.

He says that when Russia started the war, his family decided to stay in the city, thinking that it wouldn't last long. But after living in the basement for 2 weeks they decided to flee, as the situation was only getting worse.

“Me, my mom, dad and grandma left Mariupol on April 6. We had to walk a long way under fire - aircraft flew overhead, the city was being attacked by warships, that was really scary. There was no transport to help get us out. We could've used our own car, but our garage got shelled.”

“I’d want to return to Mariupol, but all the flats got burnt down and destroyed, there’s nowhere to come back to”

They set off on foot to temporarily occupied Manhush at 6 am. Volunteers picked them up.

“Russians were passing by, and we were scared they might open fire. But they drove past and laughed. It got less scary after we left Mariupol. From Manhush we got to Zaporizhzha, where we spent the night in a kindergarten and then took an evacuation train to Lviv. We passed a lot of cities, but we wanted to get farther to the West of Ukraine, so we chose the Lion’s city (Lviv - the city of the lion - Ed.)

Danylo Shabinskyi arrived in Lviv on May 17. He is enrolled in school and continues his ballroom dancing lessons.

“I really like Lviv and would want to stay here, there are a lot of historical sights around. I’d want to return to Mariupol, but all the flats got burnt down and destroyed, there’s nowhere to come back to. So we’ll probably stay here. It’s really beautiful, although the weather is different than in Mariupol. We didn’t have that much rain, it was sunny and warm, but here the weather is changeable.”