23-year-old jazzman Huseyn Talyshinsky is from Baku, but since the summer of 2021 he has lived in Moscow: according to him, the capital is the easiest place to realize oneself creatively.
In December 2021, he left for Kharkiv on tour.
Talyshinsky recalls that he was going to return to Moscow in just a few months.
On the night of February 23, he was just looking for suitable air tickets.
“I thought I would buy tickets in the morning, maybe they will be cheaper.
And at five in the morning they knock on my door and say that they are evacuating, they are shooting, I have to run to the subway.
Just arrived - and hit.
No more tours in Ukraine,” says Talyshinsky.
© Photo from the personal archive
Even before the outbreak of hostilities, Hussein met a 19-year-old student Valeria Koltsova, a native of Slavyansk.
The girl lived in a university hostel.
“I called Valeria, she arrived, and together we went down to the subway.
Since then, we have been inseparable,” says Talyshinsky.
Koltsova says she first entered the war zone back in 2014 as a 12-year-old girl.
“I kind of got used to it.
It muffles a little, but nothing terrible.
We spent the evening on the subway.
They went out, but the blows began again.
Then we went down for two or three hours and then finally returned to the hostel, - says the girl.
- Once I became very scared: on March 5, we saw a flash and a red light in the window.
There was also such a sound ... We lay down on the floor.
The windows are cracked."
“By the end of March, everyone was already used to shelling.
Once Valeria and I passed by a playground.
The boys played there.
When they heard the explosions, they became worried and turned to their parents.
They told them: "This is a salute."
And the children continued to play,” recalls Hussein.
According to the couple, there was little money left, it was necessary to save.
“The news said that trucks with humanitarian aid from Poland and Germany were going to Kharkiv.
But in fact, we never saw them, we sat hungry, - says Valeria.
- Some small packages were handed out at the post office, but such queues lined up behind them!
People almost fought."
On April 10, Koltsova's relatives were evacuated to Poland.
According to Valeria, they called her with them, but the girl did not want to go to Europe and be separated from her lover.
“Husein said that I should be with my family, but I hoped to the last that we could go to Russia together.
I didn't want to go to Europe - a different mentality, a different language.
In Ukraine, all Russian websites are blocked.
There is no information about green corridors or evacuation to Russia,” she says.
- I looked through groups, chats through VPN, and on the night before leaving for my parents, I nevertheless found information that Russia was accepting refugees from Ukraine.
I had to go - there was only money left for the road.
"Called a taxi at random"
Talyshinsky says that the problem was also how to get to the border.
According to him, many unscrupulous carriers profited from the desire of people to leave for a safe place.
“You write to them, they take the money in advance, supposedly for security, and then they just don’t come.
At the same time, they demand to pay in foreign currency, and the amounts are rather big - starting from $300.
Of course, we didn’t fall for this,” says Talyshinsky.
- As a result, on April 15, we decided to just randomly call a taxi.
We put the minimum amount, one man took the order.
We didn't even expect.
Very good person".
According to Hussein, the taxi driver promised to take them as close to the border as he could.
First, the couple went to the Nekhoteevka-Goptovka border checkpoint.
According to the guys, the first two Ukrainian checkpoints let them through, but at the third they had questions.
“The chief has arrived.
I started asking where we were going.
I say - to Russia, home, to relatives.
He replies: “But I won’t let you into Russia.”
He began to say that the Russian military would shoot us there,” Hussein recalls.
“Then he said: either we turn around, or he calls the SBU and we will already answer their questions.”
The taxi driver advised me to go to another border checkpoint near Goptovka.
It also managed to pass two posts.
On the third, a taxi driver was already talking to the military.
According to Talyshinsky, the driver said he was taking passengers to the nearest village in Ukraine to visit relatives.
© Photo from the personal archive
“We drove ten kilometers calmly, there were collapsed cars on the roadsides.
And then a post appears in front, from there a hand is shown: “Stop.”
They told me to get out of the car, they examined me with a Kalashnikov in my hands,” Hussein says.
- They spread a towel on the ground, poured out things, probed.
I was examined for tattoos.
At first we did not understand whose military they were.
And then I saw their St. George ribbon.
When KamAZ with the letter Z drove by, it became calmer.
The military gave us water, asked if we were hungry, gave us army rations.
They also realized that we were not a danger, and began to speak politely.”
According to Talyshinsky, it was at this post that men were not allowed through for some reason.
However, he stood his ground, saying that there was no turning back.
“If I return from this side to the Ukrainian checkpoint, they will also have many questions,” the young man explains.
As Talyshinsky said, as a result, after two or three hours they were let through.
“The taxi driver was turned around.
We were ready to walk 15 km to the border, but one of the soldiers volunteered to help us.
Drove me to Nekhoteevka.
From there, an empty bus was called for the two of us, which took us to Belgorod.
There we spent a day and a half at the station waiting for the train to Moscow,” says Valeria Koltsova.
“I don’t know if the houses will be intact”
According to the girl, now she draws up documents for obtaining refugee status.
In the future, Valeria plans to resume her studies at a Russian university.
© Photo from the personal archive
“I don’t know if our houses will be intact to return.
My relatives have gone to Poland, but they say that the attitude there is not so good,” she says.
- In 2014, in our house in Slovyansk, only the windows were broken.
But they were helped to restore not by the Ukrainian authorities, but by some German company.
Now I don’t know what will happen.”
According to the girl, she likes Moscow and she is really looking forward to May 9th.
Koltsova adds that she is very interested to see how this holiday is celebrated in Russia.
“When I see here, in Moscow, St. George ribbons and portraits of Lenin, at first I get scared, and then only I understand that this is not prohibited here.
And I didn’t expect to hear the song “Victory Day”.
We can’t listen to this, ”Valeria shared with RT.