Love does strange things to a person. Especially in times of war. That is how it came to the story of 32-year-old Ukrainian Serhi Belyaev. He lives in the village of Tsyrkuny. His fiancée and his parents live about ten kilometers away in Kharkov. Before the war, that meant entering Sorborna Street, taking the E40 to the Lesia Serduika highway and there it was. But when the Russians invaded Ukraine on February 24, it took just a few hours for his home city to be completely captured and the Lesia Seduika turned into the front line. That meant that his fiancée and his parents were on the other side of the front, and he couldn’t possibly cross that line.
So he came up with an alternative plan. Instead of the usual 10 kilometers he would undertake a journey of 3700 kilometers to get to his loved ones. “To the Russian border, through Russia to Latvia, on to Lithuania and Poland and then back to western Ukraine to reach Kharkov from the west,” he told The Guardian† “It was a little crazy, yes.” But it was possible.
small convoy
At 1 o’clock in the afternoon on April 4, he left in a small convoy. And regardless of the huge distance it wouldn’t be easy. They were stopped for hours at each border post. Suspected of being a spy, he had to tell a believable story time and again to get to the next checkpoint. Along the way they had to deal with engine trouble and sometimes had to balance on broken bridges and roads. Several times he came face to face with Russian machine guns and had to accelerate to avoid violating the curfew.
After countless hours of interrogation and little sleep, they arrived in Latvia on April 6. By noon they were already in Lithuania and by evening they arrived in the Polish capital Warsaw. The greatest dangers had passed, but then Covid got hold of him. He stayed in the capital for seven days. There were doubts. Staying Safe Abroad or Re-Entering Ukraine? Belyaev persevered. “I had to go see my betrothed.”
Lviv
On April 14, he left again and arrived in Lviv, the westernmost city of Ukraine. But he was determined to drive on. Although that meant that he had to go through a war zone again. “A lot of roads were closed – it probably added 100 kilometers to our 550 kilometer journey. But that’s nothing if you drive 3700 kilometers instead of ten to get home,” said the man.
Short stops in Kiev, where he could sleep in a bed for the first time in 11 days, and in Poltava, where his younger brother lives, and then on to Kharkov. Fifty meters from the house of Nataliy, his fiancée, he was again stopped by the police. “They were suspicious of the covers and the condition of my car. They asked if I had slept in it, and why. Only my passport stamps convinced them of my story.” After 3700 kilometers he could embrace his Nataliy.