Sasha, Program Manager at B4i: 'My Mother and My Family Are Fleeing Kyiv'

THE YOUNG UKRAINIAN MAN, WHO HAS LIVED IN ITALY FOR 12 YEARS, IS IN CONTACT WITH RELATIVES TRYING TO FLEE THE CITY AND RECOUNTS THE TRAGEDY OF THE FIRST HOURS OF THE RUSSIAN INVASION

It wasn't even 7am in Milan when Sasha Komarevych received a phone call from his 15-year-old niece. She was leaving the Ukrainian capital Kyiv (Kiev) together with the whole family, trying to get as far away as possible. "She is very young, but she has a strong character. Her sister, who is 17, fell apart. She sent me messages to keep me posted and kept crying, she was terrified." While Sasha – program manager for the B4i-Bocconi for Innovation acceleration program – was watching the dawn in Milan, in Kyiv some of his relatives had already heard the rumbling noise of bombs. "They have hit one of the two Kyiv airports and are attacking military facilities," he explains, based on information he has been able to gather so far from talking to family and local media. "My family is trying to get together to flee Kyiv. At the moment they don't have a precise destination, they will look for accommodation as they go." His relatives who live in the city center, for example, did not even have time to organize themselves, he says: "They heard the alarm siren and ran away in their T-shirts."

What is certain is that leaving Kyiv is not at all easy in these hours: "My mother told me that the roads to leave the city are paralyzed by traffic, a kind of traffic jam that she has never seen before." And while "President Zelensky is asking the population to donate blood," on the other hand "the police are asking people to report sightings of possible undercover enemy soldiers," and an online platform "is raising funds for the Ukrainian military," says Sasha.

In short, in the hours of chaos following the Russian invasion, Sasha can only follow with apprehension the evolution of the situation. But a sudden phone call from his mother during the interview makes him smile: they have managed to get together and they are all doing well.

by Andrea Celauro
Translated by Alex Foti