00:00It's like there's a swarm of bees above your head everywhere you go.
00:04Drones are everywhere in Suzha.
00:06You can't even go out into your garden or walk down to the river.
00:10Our house is almost in the centre of town.
00:12All the taller buildings in town, anything higher than two floors, they're all in ruins.
00:19When Ukraine's army marched into Russia's Kursk region, Oleg was away on business in
00:23Moscow.
00:24His 88-year-old mother, Galina, was left back alone in Suzha.
00:30I was in the basement.
00:32It was dark all the time.
00:35I would light a candle to see what I was eating, but otherwise I was in the dark.
00:40Oleg tried to make his way back to Suzha, but by the time he got there, Russian troops
00:45had already retreated from the town.
00:49The road was already mined.
00:51On the edge of Suzha, a drone hit my car.
00:55That's how I hurt my arm.
00:57I was concussed.
00:58I managed to get home on burst tyres.
01:02I spent the next week in the cellar with my mother.
01:09Oleg says Suzha's Russian authorities did nothing to help locals leave.
01:15The local officials just got themselves and their families out.
01:19There was no organised evacuation.
01:22People tried to get out on their own but failed.
01:24There were burnt out cars everywhere.
01:27Oleg was sure that getting across the front lines to Russian-held territory was simply
01:31too dangerous.
01:32He and his mother have an advantage over many others trying to get out of Suzha.
01:36They have somewhere else to go and a second passport.
01:40Oleg and his mother have joint American and Russian citizenship after living in the US
01:45in the 1990s.
01:46As Ukrainian soldiers became a more familiar sight on the streets of Suzha, it turned out
01:50that leaving would be easier and faster than they could have imagined.
01:56I saw some Ukrainian military vehicles stop outside.
02:00I shouted to them out of the window and told them not to shoot.
02:04They told me I could come out and talk to them.
02:06I told them I wanted to evacuate my mother.
02:09Fifteen minutes later they came back, put us in a car and drove us to Sumy.
02:18It's been just over a day now since mother and son got to Ukraine.
02:21Time to get medical help and to take stock.
02:26I'm exhausted.
02:30I've lost track of time.
02:35I can't even remember what month it is.
02:39I remember the Second World War, the sirens, the air raid warnings, running for cover.
02:50And now this.
02:57Theirs is certainly an unusual story, but they're unlikely to be the last Russian refugees
03:01heading for Ukraine.
03:03As fighting in the Kursk region drags on, many Russian civilians might soon have to
03:07choose between taking a chance on crossing the front lines and taking a chance on Ukraine.
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