"It was total chaos": Munich reports on the dramatic Ukraine flight of his family from Kyiv

Created: 03/13/2022, 06:55

By: Anna-Katharina Ahnefeld

Your own family fleeing from Russian troops: the Munich lawyer Dr.

Kramer talks about the outbreak of war and the situation on the ground.

Munich – Since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, numerous people have fled.

According to the UN refugee agency, two million people have already fled to other countries before the Russian invasion.

"This is now the fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II," the organization tweeted.

The wife and son of the Munich entrepreneur Dr.

Alexander Kramer.

The 55-year-old lawyer normally commutes between Munich and Kyiv, where his family lived until recently.

He is currently in Germany himself, supporting his family from afar in their escape from Russian troops.

With

Dr.

Kramer on the exceptional family situation, the mood among the Ukrainian population and the situation in the border areas.

dr

Alexander Kramer in the IPPEN interview: The entrepreneur from Munich reports on his family's escape during the Ukraine war.

© Private

All information on the Ukraine conflict* can be found in our news tickers on the negotiations in the Ukraine war and on the military situation in the Ukraine war.

Ukraine war: Munich reports on the flight of his family - "three nights and days in the bus, taxi, on foot, in the forest, on the country road, on the road"

IPPEN.MEDIA: Can you describe the situation your family is currently in in Ukraine?

Alexander Kramer: With the bombing of Kyiv, my family began fleeing Kiev on February 24th.

My wife first called me at 4:32 a.m. and said: Kyiv is being bombed.

They then left town on foot, my wife, our eleven-year-old son Kostja and her mother, who was 66 years old.

The only luggage they had was rucksacks, that's all they could take with them from the apartment.

Before they left, they locked the apartment and tilted the windows because of the pressure waves.

We live in a big beautiful 23 story apartment block and the house was hit right across the street.

And then they set off, without radio contact, and spent three nights and days in buses, taxis, on foot, in the woods, on country roads, on the road.

Did they spot Russian troops as they fled?

Yes.

My son Kostya spotted airplanes and transport and attack helicopters in the sky.

You have to know that Kostya is very interested in such flying objects.

When they were on the country road and the helicopters were flying, he wrote me a WhatsApp and I told him to get off the country road quickly.

I made it clear to my son that if the helicopter comes flying, he has to hide.

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They did not meet any army troops or armored vehicles on their way.

You left in the first impulse, right in the morning when the war broke out, when the first bombs hit and were therefore part of the first refugee movement.

The longer it takes to flee from Kyiv after the war begins, for example, the more difficult it becomes.

So was it immediately clear to her family that they had to get out of Kyiv immediately?

My wife didn't believe until the end that war would actually break out.

It just wasn't in her reasoning.

She only said that the war had been raging in eastern Ukraine for years.

And the Ukrainians have somehow come to terms with this permanent state of emergency on their eastern border.

Everyone thought, as we do in Germany, that there would be no conflagration.

They accepted the small fire because they were sure that if they took action against it, Russia* would only react aggressively.

So everything was left as it was for almost ten years.

So you have to imagine that you got used to this exceptional situation over the years.

Just as people set themselves up in dictatorships.

One adapts to such conditions as best one can.

What does your family say about the mood among the Ukrainian population?

The conditions in western Ukraine are reasonably stable thanks to the security of the military.

My family is there at the moment too.

The Ukrainian soldiers put a lot of effort into making sure that people don't just slip through them.

They want to motivate the population to fight.

My concern is for the men who are to be introduced to national defense.

According to my wife, the conversations revolve around obvious things like eating, drinking, sleeping and the fate of the relatives.

But also family contacts to Russia.

We just have the case that the Russian uncle sent money to my wife Anna.

The Russian state has noticed.

My wife is now very worried because the uncle is on a ship belonging to the Russian units and he is now threatened with trouble in the port.

So now the Ukrainians are afraid for their Russian uncle.

Otherwise, a lot is about flight, insecurity and despair.  

War in Ukraine: von Münchner family fleeing Russian troops

Do you get information about the situations in the border areas?

What I do know is that there are large columns from the Hungarian side on the border with Ukraine.

I know this from several Hungarian sources I spoke to.

They confirmed to me that the processing of people on the Ukrainian side is slow because everyone is searched.

The soldiers search the suitcases, looking for weapons and explosives.

You search everything because you don't want conscripts to evade.

I don't know what else they're looking for.

It was only confirmed to me several times that the refugees were being searched.

So is your family currently trying to cross the border?

They are just near the Ukrainian border.

Unfortunately, we don't yet know exactly how to proceed.

Right now my family is very torn about whether they should wait for the Russian uncle.

And with my wife Anna it is also the case that she has a brother and father in Ukraine* who are currently hiding in her house.

The two men have the Russian troops in front of the door and the Ukrainian army behind them.

And when they leave the house, they get “a helmet” and are drafted.

The father is already 65 years old, but that would not play a big role.

How is it for you to be safe in Germany while your family is fleeing in Ukraine?

I am currently in permanent contact with my wife via WhatsApp.

I can't even remember how many messages I've written with texts like: Don't give up, you've done a great job organizing this so far, you still have to take a small step.

So I accompanied this process of escape the whole time, organized the escape route, provided them with information and money.

And I myself wasn't able to develop any feelings about the situation because I was in a kind of "help function" all the time.

It was total chaos, it's war!

Now they are in western Ukraine.

Kostya wrote to me that everything was fine.

So you've calmed down a bit.

(aka) *Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.

Tens of thousands of people are fleeing the cruel war in Ukraine* to Germany.

The CSU and Greens demand that the admission must be "humane" - and see problems.