I am bit emotional today, as I woke up at 5 a.m. and spent hours on the phone with various family members, friends and business associates in Moscow, Kyiv, Crimea, Odessa and beyond.
I will try to leave my emotions out of this, as it’s so disturbing to hear people cry on the other end of the phone and tell you they have nowhere to go as they hear bombs going off, and to feel absolutely helpless as I sit in the comfort of my own home,safe and sound.
Our first calls were to the capital in Kyiv, where my spouse lived for the majority of her adult life before coming to Michigan.
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Yuri, a cameraman there, told us: “There is a panic, and everyone who can leave and go to the western side of Ukraine is attempting to do this, leaving all their belongs behind. This has caused major traffic jams, and there is panic happening all around the city.”
“We heard Russian bombs right outside of Kiev, as Russia attacked from three sides simultaneously, unlike their presentations that the military action would only take place in Eastern Ukraine.”
Natalie S., another one of our journalist friends in Kyiv, said she and her family slept, like most people, in the subway, as they considered that to be the safest options.Natalie’s son, who is only 8 or 9 years old, got on the phone and told us that when the bombs fall he hopes it will hit his school so he won’t have to go there anymore.
As a mother of a 4-year-old boy, this one really broke me just to think that a child is talking about bombs being dropped in his neighborhood is terrifying.
Later in the morning, we spoke with family and friends in Moscow, where I grew up.
Katya, an industrial designer who is on assignment in Moscow, called me and said she was terrified. She said Russians don’t want to have war with people that they have viewed like their brothers and sisters all their lives.
They don’t want to be at war with anyone, but what can they do? They all feel helpless, as they saw massive arrests taking place if wherever any significant amount of people gather.
One of our dear friends — Alexander, a TV showrunner — called and said he had just watched people get dragged by Russian SWAT team forces and driven away in cars. He saw a man’s arms getting broken.
“There is no more Russia!” Alexander said. “There is just Putin and his soldiers.”
We talked to Ilya, a chef in the Ukranian city of Kherson, which is at the southern border with Crimea, and he was worried about food, because all the bread factories there have shut down as workers flee the city. But he told us his friends scored 300 kilograms of flour, so they will bake it as quickly as they can and just give away the bread.
In Odessa, my spouse’s best friend’s mother was crying, as all the flights have been grounded and she will not be able to leave the country. She told us as she made her way to a bomb shelter there that she has nowhere to go.
In Crimea, where my spouse’s family lives, all incoming and outgoing flights, trains and cars have been halted; no-one can come in or go out..There is a large Russian troop presence, and it’s an isolated peninsula, so they anticipate major food and logistical shortages very quickly there.
The economy as crumbling, as the ruble took a major dive today against the dollar and the Euro, and everyone’s business ventures are being destroyed before their eyes. I was in the middle a major business deal with Russian/Ukranian counterparts, and all of it basically destroyed.
Jenny Feterovich is a film and television producer who produced “The Russian Five,” a 2018 documentary about the first five Russian hockey players to play together in the National Hockey League. She grew up in Russia and lives in Bloomfield Township..
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: “Russian Five” filmmaker fields frightened calls from Kyiv, Moscow
