15 hours waiting time to Europe - Poland

I catch the bus at the Rava-Ruska border crossing - I only left Kiev by train at 23:00, so I only had to queue for 7 hours myself.

Svitlana.

Sitting next to her is a railway cashier from Zaporizhia, from Berdiansk.
Before the new ones, she had a fireplace in her apartment and even when she got up early at night, she would turn it on, make an early coffee, and enjoy her life, even though her brother kept calling her to move back to her parents' house, to sell the apartment - the children were grown up.

She met the war at work, barely had time to organize her papers, put them in a safe (which was blown up the next day along with the station), burned something herself, and after putting the money that the collectors hadn't taken in a bag, jumped into her son-in-law's car and drove in the opposite direction, thus passing the invaders. They did not have time to take their belongings from the house.
Her daughter was given refuge in Lithuania, while Svitlana initially stayed in Nikopol, but eventually left for Kiev, unable to withstand the constant shelling. She continued to work in the railway ticket office and immediately after finishing her work, after taking 10 days leave, she went to Visaginas to visit her daughter and her family.

Kurd.

Returning from Vinnitsa to the Netherlands via Vilnius. He has lived there on and off for 25 years, and 8 years ago started exporting charcoal to his native Iraq from Ukraine, where the invasion of the invaders took place. With the fall in logistics prices, he is resuming his business and promises to return to Vinnitsa, as he will not find better business conditions in Europe, although having worked as a chef in a kitchen for many years, he has no difficulty in integrating abroad.

Volodymyr.

My husband of one year, also a father of four, a retired military officer with a second-group disability, is driving a car to Lithuania. He deals in them, and from time to time he takes colleagues to the front. From Khmelnitsky. Involved in the fighting with the Russians since 2014, wounded, retired in January 2022, served 25 years in the Air Defence Forces and was responsible for loading/fixing missiles and bombs under fighters. Three children still minors, eldest a Bayraktar operator.

It turns out that he was at the 11 March commemoration and saw me there.

Algirdas.

A 78-year-old pensioner from Vilnius. Formerly employed in the administration of Vilnius University. This is his fifth trip abroad this year and his first trip to Kiev since the beginning of the invasion. In addition to Europe, he has been to India, New Zealand and Australia. A lifelong friend was afraid to go along. Always travels on his own without the help of tour groups or agencies. I can see how far we are in the West when I look at this inquisitive gentleman, and at the same time I realise my place in the middle of that journey. On the journey of life.

Andrius.

Volontioras is from the same district of Trakai as me - Aukštadvaris. We met on fb and accidentally ended up in Ukraine the same year. In Lithuania he works from home as a web developer, so due to the specifics of his work he is quite overweight, but that doesn't stop him from being active and driving SUVs to Kramatorsk. He smiles like me. Happiness is measured in good deeds.

Senior citizen.

He didn't say much and didn't say where he was going, only at the end of the trip he said he was going home to the Donbass, visiting relatives in Ukraine, and this is the way it is going, through Poland, Lithuania, Belarus.

Vadim.

After searching all the Ukrainian prisons, he found God and now volunteers, drives cars to the front, builds modular houses for the homeless Ukrainian population left behind after the war. He arrived in Kaunas in a jeep, planning to drive back 1400km immediately. Last name Moskolenko. Moskal. There used to be a rule in the zones - if you speak Ukrainian, you are a worthless villager. Just like we do with Polish - only men speak Lithuanian. Now they communicate only in Ukrainian.

A woman with a child.

Originally from Odessa, he also lives in Visaginas. She speaks Russian with her Lithuanian boyfriend. When Andrius and I are talking, she interjects in Lithuanian, she not only understands, but also communicates, and the child does too. Her parents are still in Odessa, but she sees her life only in Lithuania, she says it is easier to live here and she dreams of having her own home
A full bus. Dozens of different lives that are so incredibly simple, all you have to do is to be here and now, walking the same path for our freedom and theirs.

...the passengers' phones are once again ringing with the usual air-raid alert, even though we are already approaching Warsaw.