War in Ukraine: Children in Mariupol drank from puddles to survive

Yulia ran under fire from her shelter to the nearest well so that her daughters could get clean water.

When Ukrainian Nataliia Roberts hears about how her best friend’s children are drinking rainwater from puddles to survive the war in Ukraine, she wants to bring her back to England as soon as possible.

Yulia and her three daughters would leave their basement shelter in the besieged city of Mariupol after it rained to quench their thirst.

Not only were they short of water and food; The makeshift retreats had no toilets, showers or electricity.

Nataliia now wants her childhood friend with her in Wales, where she has lived with her husband Dewi for five years.

“We had a small bowl. [de sopa] once a day for three children,” explains Yuliia. “And a glass of water for the three children to cleanse themselves.”

After their home was destroyed by Russian bombs, Yuliia and her 11, six, and three-year-old daughters had to take shelter in a communal basement that provided shelter, but she barely had enough food to feed the children.

“The kids were going to want to eat, so she started feeding them before bed to make them feel full before bed,” says Nataliia from her home in North Wales.

“When it started to rain, they first drank from the puddle. Then they found some pots to fill with water.”

‘There was nothing’

Yuliia had to leave her daughters alone in the shelter while she went to get fresh water.

“There was a well three kilometers away. I had to run there under gunfire and bombs,” says Yuliia, videotaping her daily life for the BBC Wales Investigates programme.

And when the middle girl got sick, there was no medicine.

“I had money but couldn’t buy anything because there was nothing anywhere, everything was broken, everything was looted and destroyed,” he says.

Yuliia and Nataliia have been close friends since school and have always been in touch – until the war broke out in Ukraine in February.

For days, sometimes weeks, it wasn’t safe for Yuliia to text or call her friend 2,000 miles away.

Nataliia had to make intermittent updates to the daily video accounts of Yuliia and the girls in the underground bunker while her husband fought on the front lines with the Russians.

Nataliia managed to get her mother and stepfather out of eastern Ukraine when the situation started to deteriorate, and Liudmyla and Sasha now live in Caernarfon, Wales with her husband Dewi, four-year-old Julia, and one-year-old Jacob.

Now the 32-year-old accountant is doing everything she can to help her friend Yuliia and her family become Ukrainian refugees in the UK.

Yuliia and her daughters are among 11 million Ukrainians who were forced to leave their homes weeks before the United Nations-led Mariupol evacuation began.

The city is strategically important because from there the Russians can control the entire eastern part of the Ukrainian coast.

Mariupol, which has been under siege since the beginning of March, is now mainly under the command of Russian forces – although several hundred Ukrainian soldiers remain at the Azovstal metallurgical plant south of the city.

Russian forces have blocked the expanding industrial complex and continue their aerial bombardment, but no attempt has yet been made to remove Ukrainian troops from the network of tunnels under the factory.

Russia is accused of war crimes for heavily bombing the city. According to the local mayor, at least 20,000 civilians were killed. More than 100,000 people were stranded there.

Not knowing when she would see her husband again or whether she would be able to join Nataliia and her family in Wales, Yuliia traveled with her three daughters to Poland by train and then by minibus.

But it’s the battle scenes that impressed Yuliia the most.

“He saw people who were killed by missiles in Mariupol, who had no hands or legs, whose bodies were dismembered,” says Nataliia.

“I would love for Yuliia to be here with us in Wales. I dream that one day we will have a cup of tea in our dining room and she and the girls can lead a happier life. I would love that.”

Of the 86,000 visas approved, some 27,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in the UK, and Wales has said it wants to be a “country of refuge” for those fleeing the horrors of war in their homeland.

10,000 Welsh families have provided housing for Ukrainian refugees, but as of the end of last month the British Home Office had issued only 2,300 visas to those wishing to come to Wales.

The Welsh government has so far approved around 700 visa applications, but was unable to tell the BBC how many refugees actually arrived in the country, insisting that it had asked the UK government for data but it was not available to it.

The Home Office added that it is working “as quickly as possible” to provide information to local governments, adding that more than 86,000 visas have been issued under various schemes. He also said he has simplified forms and increased headcount to speed authorizations.

The United Kingdom consists of four countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

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