Appointed in September 2021 as internal security attaché at the French embassy in kyiv, Colonel Sébastien Dordhain was stationed in Ukraine at the time of the Russian offensive.
Responsible for liaising between France and Ukraine, Colonel Dordhain notably participated in the evacuation of the French Embassy on February 28, 2022, four days after the start of the conflict.
For "20 Minutes", he returns to the management of this unprecedented crisis.
A little over six months after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, Colonel Sébastien Dordhain, internal security attaché (ASI) to the French ambassador in kyiv, granted himself a few days of respite in France.
Appointed in September 2021, the 46-year-old man, who left with his wife and two children, did not expect to be at the heart of such a crisis.
The outbreak of the Russian offensive on February 24, the evacuation of the French embassy in Kiev, confinement for several days... For
20 Minutes
, Colonel Dordhain, sent to ensure the interface between Ukraine and France , looks back on the strong moments of this conflict, which he experienced "from the inside".
How did you learn of the outbreak of the Russian offensive?
On February 24, almost from the first strikes, around 5 a.m., all the staff of the French Embassy received a message on WhatsApp, asking them to return to their post as soon as possible.
Everyone arrives quickly and a crisis organization is set up, knowing that we had conducted an exercise of this order in December.
This allowed us to streamline our implementation.
Very quickly, everyone called their usual points of contact to get a slightly clearer picture of the situation.
We are also setting up a telephone switchboard to answer questions from nationals, with the information we have, which is not very complete.
At that time, we do not yet know that we will evacuate them.
But the next day, nationals are advised to remain confined.
Did you expect such an offensive?
As of October, it was clear that the Russians were accumulating troops and equipment on the border with Ukraine under the guise of exercises.
We were already on alert, we had prepared for the possibility of an offensive.
The question then was whether it was going to take place, and when.
The magnitude surprised us.
We thought rather of an offensive limited to the east of Ukraine, or even the south, but not an attack on the entire territory.
For four days, you are then confined to the embassy…
From February 24 to 28, there were around a hundred people, members of the GIGN, soldiers, embassy officials - their families having been repatriated the previous week -.
It's a bit like Koh-Lanta, but without the beach and the sun.
For four days, we all live together in the embassy, we have collected each other's pets, dogs, cats and even a parrot, it's Noah's ark.
We sleep in our offices, on a simple floor mat, we are rationed because we don't know how long it will last.
Fortunately, the GIGN present on the spot organizes daily life, makes sure that everything goes well.
In particular the psychological aspect, very important in this kind of situation.
They set up a cleaning team, a kitchen team, a dishwashing team.
They occupy people to prevent them from thinking, even if some crack.
We don't have free time.
During the day, we are behind our computer to work, and in the evening, we are on household chores.
These men being very accustomed to crises, to stress, have this ability to reassure, to entertain the staff.
And then, we keep in touch with our families.
There is no Internet blackout, no social media shutdowns, that's a big surprise.
We don't necessarily have time to call our loved ones, but at least we have the possibility.
Outside, there are regular explosions, sometimes shooting a few hundred meters from the embassy.
Even in these conditions, we continue to work.
In the evening, we try to sleep, to rest, but it's not easy.
After four days of confinement, you organize the evacuation of the embassy.
How is the trip going?
On February 28, at 5:30 p.m., the order fell and the evacuation of the embassy was launched as far as Lviv, in western Ukraine, 70 kilometers from the Polish border.
The convoy is made up of about fifty cars, our personal vehicles, supervised by the GIGN.
It is he who organizes the convoy, the order of the vehicles and who gives the instructions on arrival at the checkpoint.
We have radios in every car, we talk to each other all the time.
We try as much as possible to put gendarmes or soldiers behind the wheel, but there are a few vehicles driven by civilians.
During the first thirty kilometers, when you leave kyiv, it's daunting.
We are flown over by missiles, we hear machine gun fire, fire from anti-aircraft defenses, cars are shaking.
At each checkpoint, the Ukrainians steer the lead vehicles.
The journey is a little over 500 km, we take almost 30 hours to cover it.
Some of the people evacuated from the embassy then returned to France via Romania.
A small hard core remains in Lviv to ensure the functioning of the relocated embassy.
These are the ambassador, the ASI, a second diplomat, the defense attaché with his collaborators and the GIGN.
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What impressed you the most?
The most stressful, the most striking professionally, is this evacuation from kyiv to Lviv.
And the most humanly striking thing are the miles of queues of women, children and elderly people who waited patiently to cross the border.
These are images of exodus from another time.
It's hard to explain what we went through.
It was not my first international mission, but I had never done a mission of such intensity in a context like this.
What is the situation in Kyiv today?
It's a little quieter.
The embassy was relocated to its original building in Kyiv on April 16.
We are no longer under shellfire.
Life has resumed almost normally, there are people walking in the street, the shops are open.
But having known kyiv before the war, something is missing, the atmosphere has changed.
Everyone is wondering what the next few months will look like.
We have to wait to see how the winter is going to go, both militarily, with the change in climatic conditions, and in terms of energy.
I think we are in for a war that will last.
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