Suvad Tutnjic from Zepce went to Ukraine 30 years ago, just a few months before the start of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), to work, and a few days ago he fled the country to BiH to save himself and his family.
A very interesting, but at the same time sad story with a happy ending, could be included in the book by Suvad Tutnjic, who survived two aggressions in 30 years, two enemy invasions of the house, and everything he built for himself and his family for years. After a very difficult journey, Suvad reached his brother a few days ago. Even though he left everything he built, he was happy that he has survived.
Suvad’s story begins with his departure from BiH in August 1992, when he traveled to Ukraine as a young man working for Zenica carpentry on a work assignment. Since he planned to stay only three months, he carried only a suitcase of basic clothes, but shortly after his departure, the war in BiH began.
Given that the technology at that time was not as available as it is today, Suvad was with work colleagues with whom he stayed in Ukraine and did not know what was happening in his country for five years. Five years later, he returned to BiH, but then back to Ukraine, where he previously married a Ukrainian woman and built a family and life.
“I lived, worked, it’s not the United States (U.S.), but you can work and provide everything for the family, car, and apartment. Everything was fine. Eight years ago, when the president who was Putin’s player was fired, events began in Crimea. That the world then reacted as now, this would not be happening today.But, it was Crimea then, and now rockets are falling on Lviv a few kilometers from the European Union (EU) and NATO.However, the removal of that president has brought democracy to Ukraine. Citizens could protest in the streets, influence changes in the law, and in many European countries there was no democracy like in Ukraine, “ Suvad emphasized.
He further pointed out that in 2014, but also today, Russians came up with the story that they want to protect the Russian language, destroy the Nazis, in a word, distorted images and wrong ideologies.
“After what they have done and are still doing, 97 percent of people now support Ukraine, and until yesterday they showed support to Russia. They simply realized that Putin’s plan of ‘protection’ makes no sense at all,” Tutnjic added.
Suvad lived in North Donetsk, Luhansk region, which is currently under attack and destruction. He stated that he has never seen a soldier on the street and that there was no military target there, but that the city was on fire.
I left everything there. The new car was left in the garage, I bought an apartment, my wife started a business, but when I looked at everything, our lives were saved. No one believed it would happen. Even my wife went to visit at son in Kharkiv to call me at 4 a.m. and say it started. I asked her what was going on, she answered the shelling. I couldn’t believe it until I turned on the television and saw really that the war had started, “addedthe interlocutor.
From that moment on, he began planning the evacuation of himself and his family. Three unsuccessful attempts to leave by train were interrupted by shelling. After the message from the authorities to go to the station for the fourth time, he left, but new grenades started falling. Hidden in a pipe at the train station, he spent eight hours and returned to his house.
“My wife was in the basement of the building with our son in Kharkiv, and after the arrival of our territorial defense, they were moved to a safer location where they spent another seven days. I somehow managed to reach the Dnipropetrovsk region and paid volunteers so my wife, son, and I reached Kharkiv, “ mentionedSuvad and continued:
“When we met there, we planned how to proceed. This area is in the center, everything could end there because it is strategically important, there are NASA space rockets there, a large institute. I went to the train station, I saw that there are 10.000 people. I started panicking because I thought we would never leave. I had a friend from Olovo in this region who had left earlier, I called him and he told me given that the roads to Poland are passable, I should take his mother-in-law’s car and leave with the family. That’s how we escaped. “
The trip to Poland lasted four days instead of a day and a half. Every few kilometers there was a gas station, we were waiting for 2 hours in line and only 10 liters of fuel in the tank. The curfew started at 5 p.m. and all those who drove had to stop, take shelter and later continue their journey. Four days later, they arrived at the Polish border.
“By the time we got to the border, the law came out that men between the ages of 18 and 65 can’t leave Ukraine. My son had a BiH passport, but he didn’t have an entry stamp in Ukraine. When leaving Ukraine, the border guard asked why he didn’t have the stamp of entering in the passport? We said that we entered when all the fuss started, so they just told us to enter… She laughed, everything was clear to her, we went to Poland and from there we continued our journey.
Suvad’s son went to Krakow where his company is headquartered, and Suvad and his wife went to Zepce to visit hisbrother. Today, in Zepce, he is fighting the bureaucracy, which is why he needs a certificate of impunity from Ukraine for his legal stay in BiH for more than a month. However, he is still fighting this situation and hopes that the war will end soon.
”When I went to Ukraine, I didn’t think I would stay that long. God’s will, it all happened that way. The main thing is that I am alive. I can’t cry, it won’t help. I’ll go back there if and when all of this calms down, to see what’s left, but I don’t plan to stay in North Donetsk. It won’t recover so quickly, factories and cities are destroyed, there are many refugees, this recovery will take a long time. I’ll try to sell everything I have, what’s left because I don’t want to stay in their new unrecognized republic, I will move west, “ Tutnjic concluded.
E.Dz.
Source: Klix.ba
