Solutions from Ukraine: monobank buys home for 98-year-old woman who fled occupied territory on foot
Monobank purchased a home for Lidiia, a 98-year-old resident of Ocheretyne village in the Donetsk region who bravely traveled about 10 km to escape the occupied area during heavy fighting. The Russians had destroyed her home.
The co-owner of monobank, Oleh Horokhovsky, announced this on Telegram.
In April, The National Police shared the story of Lidiia. The exhausted pedestrian was spotted on the road in the evening by military personnel and was handed over to the "White Angel" police unit.
Photo: Telegram / Oleh Horokhovsky
Lidiia walked alone through the occupied part of Ocheretyne, covering about 10 kilometers. She leaned on a stick as she made her way, falling several times due to exhaustion. According to her, she eventually "dozed off" on the way.
"She held onto two sticks and her resilience. Amid the fighting, the elderly woman miraculously survived unscathed," the police said.
Photo: Telegram / Oleh Horokhovsky
The woman said that the Russians destroyed the house she had built with her own hands, and her relatives were injured.
"I survived that war [the II World War – ed.], and I'm going through this one. And I was left with nothing. That war was not like that – not a single house burned down. And now they burned, and trees were uprooted," the woman said.
When the military spotted the woman on the road, they quickly put her in a car and reached out to the "White Angels" for assistance in getting her to a secure location. Later, the police discovered that Lidiia's family members were hospitalized in Kostiantynivka, and her granddaughter would be picking her up.
Horokhovsky reported that monobank would buy Lidiia a house:
"And she will definitely live in it until the moment when this abomination [the Russian occupiers – ed.] disappears from our land."
Photo: Telegram / Oleh Horokhovsky
At the moment, he said that Lidiia already has a new house.
It was also reported that the head of train 111/112 Kyiv—Avdiivka presented an honorary certificate to a 98-year-old resident of Ocheretyne. The elderly individual walked approximately 10 km to reach a territory controlled by Ukraine to avoid occupation.
"We immediately felt the familiar "ironness" here, checked – and were not mistaken: Lidiia worked as a conductor for 40 years on the Donetsk Railway. Today, the Ukrzaliznytsia team presented Lidiia with the certificate of honorary conductor of train 111/112 Kyiv – Avdiivka, which historically passed through her hometown, Ocheretyne, to which she sincerely dreams of returning. Now only by train — after Ukraine's armed forces," the message reads.
With the employees of Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukrainian journalist and traveler Dmytro Komarov visited the woman in the Donetsk region to tell the story of the "iron grandmother" to the whole world.