"At just 12, the daughter turned gray." How a politician's family escaped occupation and why she hid from her husband that their son was in the military.

During the day, I attended rallies, and in the evening — I delivered food

“Olya, this person is collaborating with the Russians. He has betrayed you. They will come for you tomorrow. He said that if you do not agree to cooperate, they will ‘play very nicely’ with your little one.”

This conversation with Olya Evert's comrade took place on March 24, 2022, in the already occupied Kherson. Her eldest son, a civilian sailor, was on a voyage in the Netherlands.

Before the full-scale war, Olya ran a small business related to MAFs. She was also an assistant to a member of parliament and a local council member.

Since 2016, she had been volunteering, delivering aid to the military in the east. At the start of the full-scale war, she stayed in the city. During the day, she joined rallies, and in the evening, she evacuated children from the city and delivered food and warm clothes to the elderly and those with limited mobility.

“It was March 3. I went to the store to get some bread and deliver it to a nursing home in Kamyshany. When I arrived, they told me: ‘Olya, no, you can't go there. Full occupation is underway.’ I replied, ‘No, I’m going. If they occupy it now, no one will give those people a piece of bread. If I am destined to die — then I will die. God is with us. Load the bread.’”, the woman recalls.

Olya had no intention of leaving the city because she felt the need to help. The family moved to another neighborhood, to a friend who had two daughters of her own, aged 7 and 12. She did not tell anyone the address. But one day, the woman was tracked down. After receiving threats, she decided to flee with her friend and her daughters. The car was small, so Olya's husband, Mikhail, remained in the occupied city.

“Buryats started coming at me”

“I understood that I could be taken at any of the checkpoints since my car's number was definitely on their lists,” Olya explains. By then, the residents of Kherson were already aware of the torture chambers where the occupiers threw Ukrainians. Staying in the city was becoming increasingly dangerous.

I told my Sofia: “Sweetheart, we have different last names” (I kept my maiden name). I said: “If they take me, please don’t scream ‘mom.’ Because you are the most vulnerable. Go with Yana. I will definitely return and pick you up.” The child looked at me with frightened eyes. She didn’t understand how this could happen.Olya Evert, former deputy of the Kherson District Council

At the first checkpoint, they let the car pass. Olya suspects that the Russians were taking people at the more distant posts to avoid showing those waiting in line what they were doing to people.

When Olya approached the last Russian checkpoint, a Russian soldier, looking about 22 years old — in sneakers, without a bulletproof vest or helmet — asked her to get out of the car.

“‘Open the trunk,’ he requested. We had our personal belongings and five canisters of gasoline in there because we were transporting three children and needed to have a reserve. When I opened it and the Russians saw the gasoline, Buryats started coming at me… One can only imagine what they could have done to us,” the woman recalls.

The Russian soldier who first approached their car ordered the other Russians to step back, aiming his rifle at them. He quietly told her that his mother was Ukrainian and that they were sent there under the pretext of training. He also said they had orders to shoot in the back, so: “Don’t spare the cars. Drive fast, so a sniper doesn’t ‘take you out.’ Kick up dust.”

I got back in the car and prayed. The children started to panic. I only remember shouting: “Absolute silence in the car!” And I added: “If God allows, we will make it out. If not, then may God let us die quickly.” To this day, I can still see the faces of the children in my mind.Olya Evert, former deputy of the Kherson District Council

The girls were shielded with pillows. Olya thought the kids were wearing headphones and asked her friend: “Yana, if a sniper takes me out, be ready to kick me out and save the children.” Her daughter Sofia heard these words. A scream erupted: “Mom, no!”

Olya turned to her daughter and said: “Sweetheart, I want you to remember. I will do everything possible and impossible for us all to stay alive. But this will be for the best. And know, sweetheart, that I love you and your brother more than anything.”

The car started moving. For the next 30-40 kilometers, the Russians, the woman recalls, “fired from everything they could.”

“I held onto the wheel and only prayed: ‘Lord, help me get the children out. I will be grateful for life and will do everything, just please save the children,’” Olya remembers.

A new checkpoint lay ahead. They did not know if it was Ukrainian. But Olya saw well-equipped soldiers from a distance, checking and allowing cars to pass. When they approached their car, the children were very scared. But they soon heard from the soldiers: “Guys, there are kids here! Our kids! Let’s have some candy.”

We approached the guys, provided information about how many Russians were stationed where and what they were doing. At that moment, we exhaled because we understood that we were under the protection of our Armed Forces… We then moved on to the border. It was only after crossing it that I could finally cry.Olya Evert, former deputy of the Kherson District Council

I hid from my husband that our son was in the army

Olya's son had said back in 2016: “Mom, that bastard will attack anyway. Wherever I am, I will return and fight.” Olya did not want to send her son to war. She decided to deceive him: as soon as they evacuated abroad, she would leave his 12-year-old sister Sofia with him. But the son guessed her plan. As soon as they evacuated, he crossed the border — only toward Ukraine.

“I did what every decent citizen of our state should do. I told you that there would be a war, and I would fight,” said 28-year-old Vladimir (both he and Sofia address their parents formally). He added: You said you would support me. Mom, are you with me?” Olya had no choice but to say: “Of course. I’m with you, son.”

When Vladimir was already training to work with drones, Olya came to see him. Her son asked her not to tell his father and Sofia that he was in the army. He worried that the occupiers would send his father to a torture chamber. And he didn’t want his sister to worry about him.

For more than six months, I told my husband and Sofia that Vova returned to Ukraine and went to work on a construction site. My husband didn’t understand me and complained: “He could work, donate, help the army. But he came back and is hauling bricks.”Olya Evert, former deputy of the Kherson District Council

Olya recalls how difficult it was to keep this secret. Her husband accused her of raising their children incorrectly. One day she couldn’t hold it in anymore: “Do you know what site he’s on? The biggest one there is in the state.”

Olya revealed the news about her son to Sofia indirectly. When Vladimir mentioned that the Armed Forces were already approaching Kherson, she told her daughter: “You know that our Vova knows all the rivers near Kherson, right?” He is a master of sports in kayaking and canoeing. “A general came to Vova and said: ‘You know everything, and you are local. If you show us, we will liberate Kherson faster,’” she told her daughter, adding: And he agreed.”

When the city was liberated, Sofia was very happy. She told everyone: “If it weren’t for my Vovka, Kherson wouldn’t have been freed.”

“I wanted to feel what pain was”

Olya