One Korean in Kyiv left just in time

Diplomacy

Published: 03 Mar. 2022, 05:05

One Korean in Kyiv left just in time

People wait to board an evacuation train from Kyiv to Lviv at Kyiv central train station following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine on March 1.[REUTERS/YONHAP]

When Kang Hyun-chang, a 40-year-old Korean resident of Kyiv, saw Russian jets streak across the sky on Feb. 24, he knew it was time to get moving.

“The fighter jets spoke to the fact that the Ukrainian air defense system was compromised,” Kang told the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday.

He, his Ukrainian wife and their 6-year-old daughter just made it out of the country as Russia began its invasion.

Kang, a member of Korea’s Reserve Officers' Training Corps, said he was able to recognize the signs that the military conflict was intensifying by the hour, but was anguished to have to get his family out of the country.

Russia invaded Ukraine by land, air and sea last Thursday, three days after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the independence of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.

More than 600,000 Ukrainians have fled the country, according to the UN. The European Union puts the number of people expected to be displaced by the war at around four million.

Kang's family got in a car the afternoon of Feb. 24 and drove some 545 kilometers (338 miles) towards a southern Ukrainian city near the border with Poland, Lviv. The Korean Embassy opened an office in Lviv on Feb. 16 to help Koreans trying to cross into Poland.

The Korean government ordered Koreans to leave Ukraine by Feb. 12 amidst intensifying tensions and warnings from several leaders that a Russian invasion was imminent.

The roads out of Kyiv were packed with others fleeing, and it took Kang and his family 20 hours to reach Lviv. The trip usually takes seven hours.

What they saw was not comforting.

“There were thousands at the train station in Lviv,” Kang said. “There seemed to be danger everywhere."

Kang Hyun-chang, who escaped from Ukraine on Feb. 27. [KANG HYUN-CHANG]

They tried to get out of the city on a train bound for Poland at 1 a.m. Feb. 26, but it was canceled at the last minute.

“It was a blow,” Kang said. "We were beginning to think that it might be impossible to get out of the country and that our fate would hang with that of Ukraine through the war."

But fate came through for Kang.

He received a call from the Korean Embassy in Kyiv.

Oh Jung-geun, deputy head of mission of the embassy, and another staff member said they were on their way and would accompany Kang and his family to the border with Hungary.

They came to Lviv in a van, and the Kangs, abandoning their own car, set off for Hungary.

The trip to the border with Hungary from Lviv takes five hours by car under normal circumstances. It took them ten.

By the early morning hours of Feb. 27, the entourage crossed the border. After dropping the Kang family in Budapest, Oh and the staff member returned to Lviv.

Kang said the world must pay continued attention to Ukraine, and offer humanitarian assistance.

“My acquaintances say that food and medicine are scarce, and that people who get sick or need surgery are left on their own,” Kang said.

Having lived in Ukraine since 2010, Kang knows the nation well. Kang worked for a Ukrainian gas company.

“Ukrainians are still fighting Russian tanks with Molotov cocktails,” he said. “It’s a really sad reality to see civilians being sacrificed when Ukraine and Russia are brother countries. There are many families with Russian grandmothers and Ukrainian grandfathers.”
Kang's acquaintances in Ukraine continue to send him photos and videos every day.

“It’s happening right before your eyes, but it still hasn’t sunk in that the country is really at war,” he said.

There are 40 Koreans left in the country as of Monday, according to the Foreign Ministry, not counting diplomats.

BY YANG SU-MIN, ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]