From Mariupol to Kyiv, the Trail of a Terrible War

As a crew of an international merchant ship, Sergei had enough savings to live his retirement life in his apartment in the center of Mariupol.

AFP/ED JONES

Evgueni Tichtchenko (C), Tetiana Komissarova (2nd L) and their children Ivan (L), Ioulia (3rd L), Anna (2nd R) and Sashko (R) pose prior to board an evacuation train to Lviv the day after arriving with a humanitarian convoy from the besieged city of Mariupol, at a railway station in the southern city of Zaporijjia on April 22, 2022. - After almost two months under Russian bombs in Mariupol, the Tichtchenko-Komissarova family decided to make the most perilous journey: to escape on foot with their four children from the destroyed city in order to find a sense of normalcy elsewhere in Ukraine.

Mariupol, a port city in southeastern Ukraine and one of the most fiercely fought warzones between Russian and Ukrainian forces, leaves a trail of such a harrowing experience its residents will never forget.