98-year-old woman escapes Russian-occupied territory

• Lidia Stepanivna Lomikovska walked with a cane and a splintered piece of wood 

A 98-year-old woman in Ukraine escaped Russian-occupied territory by walking almost 6 miles wearing only a pair of slippers.

Lidia Stepanivna Lomikovska and her family decided to leave the front-line town of Ocheretyne, in the eastern Donetsk region, last week after Russian troops entered it and fighting intensified.

Russians have been advancing in the area, pounding Kyiv’s depleted, ammunition-deprived forces with artillery, drones and bombs.

‘I woke up surrounded by shooting all around – so scary,’ Lomikovska said in a video interview posted by the National Police of Donetsk region.

In the chaos of the departure, Lomikovska became separated from her son and two daughters-in-law, including one, Olha Lomikovska, injured by shrapnel days earlier.

Lidia Stepanivna Lomikovska (pictured) and her family decided to leave the front-line town of Ocheretyne, in the eastern Donetsk region, last week after Russian troops entered it and fighting intensified

‘I woke up surrounded by shooting all around – so scary,’ Lomikovska said in a video interview posted by the National Police of Donetsk region

With a cane in one hand and steadying herself using a splintered piece of wood in the other, she walked all day without food and water to reach Ukrainian lines (pictured above as she’s aided by a police man)

Describing her journey, the nonagenarian (pictured above speaking to a police officer) said she had fallen twice and was forced to stop to rest at some points, even sleeping along the way before waking up and continuing her journey

Pavlo Diachenko, acting spokesman for the National Police of Ukraine in the Donetsk region, said Lomikovska was saved when Ukrainian soldiers spotted her walking along the road in the evening

The younger family members took to back routes, but Lydia wanted to stay on the main road.

With a cane in one hand and steadying herself using a splintered piece of wood in the other, she walked all day without food and water to reach Ukrainian lines.

Describing her journey, the nonagenarian said she had fallen twice and was forced to stop to rest at some points, even sleeping along the way before waking up and continuing her journey.

READ MORE: More than 450,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine two years ago, Britain’s armed forces minister reveals 

‘Once I lost balance and fell into weeds. I fell asleep – a little, and continued walking. And then, for the second time, again, I fell. But then I got up and thought to myself: “I need to keep walking, bit by bit,”‘ Lomikovska said.

Pavlo Diachenko, acting spokesman for the National Police of Ukraine in the Donetsk region, said Lomikovska was saved when Ukrainian soldiers spotted her walking along the road in the evening.

They handed her over to the ‘White Angels,’ a police group that evacuates citizens living on the front line, who then took her to a shelter for evacuees and contacted her relatives.

‘I survived that war,’ she said referring to World War II. ‘I had to go through this war too, and in the end, I am left with nothing.

‘That war wasn’t like this one. I saw that war. Not a single house burned down. But now – everything is on fire,’ she said to her rescuer.

In the latest twist to the story, the chief executive of one of Ukraine’s largest banks announced on his Telegram channel Tuesday that the bank would purchase a house for the pensioner.

‘Monobank will buy Lydia Stepanivna a house and she will surely live in it until the moment when this abomination disappears from our land,’ Oleh Horokhovskyi said.

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