Palermo. Elizabeth found a bed in a hospital. The mother Elena Pastux and the elder sister Litiia sleep in the car. Since last night they have been waiting their turn to cross the border into Poland. There are miles of queue and it will take days. For Elisabetta an eternity. She is eight years old, a severe disability that forces her into a wheelchair and she can only eat rice and little else. Yesterday he didn’t touch any food. The mother, originally from Kiev but living in Palermo for years, arrived with Elisabetta in the Ukrainian capital last Friday to pick up her eldest daughter and return all together to Sicily where her Neapolitan father Ciro Barbato also lives. But in the meantime the war broke out and they remained stranded in Ukraine. “I’m desperate – says Pastux – I don’t know how to help my daughter. The situation is terrible. She needs care and maximum assistance, even getting her food is a challenge. The supplies I had with me are finished and I can’t find anything that she can eat. I try to support her, but I am destroyed too. “
The building next to the one where he was taking refuge with his daughters in Kiev three days ago was bombed. So she decided to escape by taking advantage of the passage in the car of a German couple fleeing from Ukraine. Twenty-five hours of travel without ever stopping to the border with Poland, with Elisabetta always glued to her.
Now the wait has become unbearable, especially due to the conditions of the eight-year-old. “My daughter cannot speak, she cannot express in words the anguish she is feeling, she is not self-sufficient, so I took her with me to Ukraine to take her sister. We live in symbiosis, without me she cannot stay “, says the mother. The mayor of Palermo Leoluca Orlando has contacted the Farnesina and promised that she will do everything to bring Pastux back home with her two daughters. “I also contacted the competent embassies, humanitarian corridors must be activated immediately. The family must return to Palermo as soon as possible”, says Orlando. The mother sends updates on the situation via Whatsapp to her husband whenever she can, but it is not always easy to connect. “We are terrified – says Pastux – Who the av
Palermo
The building next to the one where he was taking refuge with his daughters in Kiev three days ago was bombed. So she decided to escape by taking advantage of the passage in the car of a German couple fleeing from Ukraine. Twenty-five hours of travel without ever stopping to the border with Poland, with Elisabetta always glued to her.
Now the wait has become unbearable, especially due to the conditions of the eight-year-old. “My daughter cannot speak, she cannot express in words the anguish she is feeling, she is not self-sufficient, so I took her with me to Ukraine to take her sister. We live in symbiosis, without me she cannot stay “, says the mother. The mayor of Palermo Leoluca Orlando has contacted the Farnesina and promised that she will do everything to bring Pastux back home with her two daughters. “I also contacted the competent embassies, humanitarian corridors must be activated immediately. The family must return to Palermo as soon as possible”, says Orlando. The mother sends updates on the situation via Whatsapp to her husband whenever she can, but it is not always easy to connect. “We are terrified – says Pastux – Who would have ever imagined that we would be prisoners of a war? It is an endless nightmare. I ask everyone for help. We must return to Italy before it is too late”, says the woman.
Could he ever imagine that we would be prisoners of a war? It is an endless nightmare. I ask everyone for help. We have to go back to Italy before it’s too late, “says the woman.