How this teen fled Russian occupation to change into an unassuming hero in Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine — Ivan Sarancha was 7 when Ukrainian literature and historical past courses disappeared from his faculty. That was in 2014 after Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea and commenced to foment separatist unrest in his japanese Donbas area of Ukraine.

Sarancha says he was too younger to comprehend what was happening again then. However his eyes have been absolutely opened with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine eight years later. By then Sarancha was 15. He says he was deeply shocked by Russia’s destruction of the port metropolis of Mariupol and its bloodbath of civilians within the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.

“I began to develop critical thinking,” says Sarancha. “I watched the Russian news and compared it with Ukrainian and American news that I could see using a VPN [an online virtual private network]. And I figured out what was true and what was false. It was just common sense.”

That is when Sarancha additionally started to consider working away from occupied territory to free Ukraine.

The story of this shy 18-year-old’s escape from enemy territory to what he calls “the country and culture of his birth” has turned him right into a media star and is inspiring a war-weary nation. It is also giving Ukrainians a uncommon glimpse at life in a area that has lengthy been minimize off, in addition to a small dose of hope.

The tall, long-haired youth smiles and affords a tender “hullo” — the extent of his English — when he meets NPR for an interview in Kyiv. He is standing in entrance of the condominium constructing the place he’s staying with different Ukrainians who’ve fled cities alongside the entrance line. He says he took massive dangers to go away a largely peaceable house together with his dad and mom.

Sarancha provides the interview in Ukrainian. He says he now feels uncomfortable talking Russian — spoken in his hometown of Luhansk— preferring as a substitute to talk Ukrainian “as a matter of principle.”

A lot of his brief life has been below the shadow of Putin’s conflict on Ukraine. His area of Luhansk, and neighboring Donetsk, turned grey zones when Kremlin-backed separatists declared independence from Ukraine in 2014 and held referendums to proclaim the Luhansk and Donetsk Folks’s Republics.

On the time, Sarancha says he was too younger to comprehend that scary chaos and instability in Ukraine was Putin’s revenge for the pro-European rebellion in Kyiv’s Maidan Sq. months earlier often known as “the Revolution of Dignity.”

Sarancha says an environment of concern pervades the whole lot in his hometown of Luhansk, the capital of the area of the identical identify.

“There is basically no political or public activity because any opinion for or against anything could get you in trouble,” he says.

Sarancha says individuals are most afraid of being taken to a spot often known as “the basement” for interrogation.

He says his hometown modified dramatically after the full-scale invasion.

“Many Russians started moving to Luhansk, and for the first time we had traffic jams,” Sarancha says. “On my way to school one day, I counted more than a hundred Russian flags along the main street. It really shocked me. There were even flags with Putin’s face on them.”

He says most younger individuals his age assist Ukraine over Russia — however would by no means overtly discuss it. He says locals do not dare protest. Although typically individuals will give Russians fallacious instructions as an act of private defiance.

After the conflict began, Sarancha joined pro-Ukraine teams on-line. And he started to talk Ukrainian — although solely together with his web pals.

It had change into too harmful to talk Ukrainian in public. “They would have beaten me and taken me to the basement, first by the police and then by the [Russian] Federal Security Service,” he says.

He needed to conceal his views from his dad and mom, who assist Putin. He says they believed Russian propaganda. For instance, they imagine the falsehood that Ukraine staged the massacres in Bucha and made pretend movies to sway international opinion, he says, despite the fact that it is properly documented that Russian forces carried out the killings.

As he started to entertain the thought of escaping, Sarancha for the primary time seen flyers on a wall that stated, “We help people leave for Ukraine from Luhansk and Donetsk.”

“They were like ordinary advertisements and I saw some of the numbers were torn off so I realized there are maybe a lot of people who want to leave, and I never realized that before,” he says.

Like a Ukrainian underground railroad, there’s a entire community of organizations serving to individuals flee from Russian occupied territory.

Kate works for one in all them, known as “Helping to Leave.” She is Russian however says she will be able to’t give her final identify as a result of it is harmful work.

The Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories at the moment are separated from Ukraine by the entrance line. To get to Ukraine, you need to move by Russia or a 3rd nation comparable to Belarus. Meaning going by an intensive interrogation and search course of on the Russian border often known as “filtration.”

“It’s definitely frightening,” says Kate. “People check your phones, your belongings and often look for a reason to detain you. It’s a very dangerous process and not everyone is allowed to leave.”

Kate says it is changing into increasingly troublesome to get out of Russian-occupied Ukraine. In 2023 1000’s of individuals escaped. Final yr just a few hundred made it out.

Sarancha started watching movies of how different individuals had made it by filtration to arrange mentally. He realized his telephone was stuffed with pro-Ukrainian info. So he purchased a brand new one and stuffed it with pro-Russian footage and messages.

He obtained a job and commenced saving cash. He informed his dad and mom he can be 18 quickly and needed to go someplace to rejoice — his first solo journey. His dad and mom wouldn’t permit him to journey to Moscow, or Georgia, the place there had been protests, however lastly agreed he may spend a number of days in Rostov-on-Don, a Russian metropolis 100 miles south of Luhansk.

What they did not know was that from there, Sarancha deliberate to journey on to Moscow and Belarus, the place there’s a humanitarian hall permitting entry into Ukraine.

Sarancha says his plans have been additional sophisticated by his brief time window.

“If you’re not 18 you can’t cross the border into Belarus without a certificate from your parents,” he says.

However to go away Luhansk with none issues he wanted to be 17 — and under Russian army draft age.

On a chilly darkish January morning, the day earlier than Sarancha’s 18th birthday, his father took him to the bus station.

“I was sitting there thinking, what am I doing?” he remembers. “I thought, where will I be in a week — Luhansk? Russia? Ukraine? I was so worried. But I pulled myself together and decided to go all the way.”

When he arrived in Rostov-on-Don he checked right into a resort for the day. His information, who he communicated with over his telephone, suggested doing so as a result of his mom had requested to see footage of his room.

Sarancha took footage of himself within the room and in numerous modifications of clothes at in style spots across the metropolis. He despatched them to his dad and mom so they would not suspect something.

That night he boarded a bus for the 600-mile, in a single day journey to Moscow. He says he was nervous, because it was stuffed with Russian troopers.

The subsequent day when Sarancha arrived in Moscow, it was his birthday. His dad and mom known as him, believing he was nonetheless in Rostov-on-Don.

“My parents are the kind of people who like to drink often,” Sarancha says. “So they had already begun celebrating my birthday. And that was to my advantage. I told them, go ahead and celebrate and don’t worry about me since you’re having fun.”

In the meantime, he took a practice on to Minsk, the Belarusian capital. He’d introduced meals alongside however could not eat a factor he was so anxious.

He says his greatest concern was that his personal dad and mom would discover out the reality and alert the authorities. As soon as in Minsk, he headed straight for the Ukrainian Embassy.

“And that’s when I saw the flag of Ukraine for the first time,” Sarancha says. “It was so big, so beautiful. I had tears in my eyes. I had not seen that flag since the first grade.”

At first officers on the embassy thought Sarancha was Russian and informed him to go away. However he insisted, exhibiting them the one Ukrainian doc he had: his start certificates. After a gathering with the ambassador himself, the embassy issued Sarancha a short lived Ukrainian passport.

The final cease on his dangerous journey was the Belarusian border with Ukraine, the place he went by filtration.

“They told me, ‘Unlock your phone and hand it over,’ ” Sarancha remembers. One guard scrolled by it, scrutinizing his footage and messages. One other stood behind him. They questioned him and searched his bag.

Sarancha says the strain was insufferable. However he was someway in a position to stay calm and so they lastly opened the barrier and let him by. He walked the few hundred ft to the Ukrainian border and freedom.

Sarancha says he likes the whole lot about Ukraine. “Everyone is united for the sake of one goal,” he says.

He says at first his dad and mom did not imagine he was in Ukraine. His mom was hysterical. He says he needs his dad and mom to acknowledge the reality concerning the conflict and has threatened to dam them on his telephone till they do. He additionally misses them terribly.

Sarancha needs to change into a sculptor and hopes to enter the Kyiv Artwork Academy subsequent fall. However for now he admits he does not thoughts the media consideration.

Ukrainian TV reporter Karina Kyrychenko who has come to interview him says Sarancha’s bravery is an inspiration for your entire nation.

“His story is necessary for all Ukrainians right now because everyone is tired and his story has a lot motivation,” she says.

Kyrychenko says Sarancha is proof that Russia’s indoctrination of a era of youth within the occupied territories might not be working in any case. There are Ukrainians there ready to be liberated.

NPR’s Polina Lytvynova and Hanna Palamarenko contributed to this story.