Zelensky to Russian pilots hitting Ukraine: “You will pay for it”

Without end the bloodshed in Ukraine as it goes on for 28th day the Russian pounding in the capital Kyiv and in key cities such as Mariupol which has now been leveled by the bombing

The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky He said today that Russian Air Force pilots operating in his country would be brought to justice, “accountable”.

“You will pay for it, one way or another”, he said. “Today or tomorrow, it does not matter so much. The important thing is that it is inevitable. “

Refers to the pilot of a Russian fighter jet shot down by Ukrainian forces in Mariupol. “This will happen to anyone who kills our people, our peaceful people in our peaceful country,” he said.

“Russian pilots do not seem to realize the importance of the orders they carry out,” he said. “Killing civilians is a crime.” insisted, broadcasts AMPE.

The Ukrainian government claims that its forces have been shot down somewhere 100 Russian fighters and bombers since the start of the invasion, which the Kremlin calls a “special military operation,” almost four weeks ago. This claim is impossible to verify independently.

6,000 kilometers: Madrid taxi drivers transport refugees from Ukraine to Spain

Because of the war, somewhere 60 Madrid taxi drivers covered almost 6,000 kilometers to deliver humanitarian aid, pick up Christina and 134 other Ukrainian refugees and transport them to Spain.

When she was in Warsaw, after leaving her homeland, Ukraine, to escape the war, Christina Tras she had no means to go to Spain, where her sister lives. Until he learned of the existence of a motorcade of solidarity Spanish taxi drivers, whom he now describes as “heroes”.

“They are our heroes”, said the 22-year-old in the French Agency in Spanish, a language that began to learn as a child, when he had traveled to Spain, after the arrival of the convoy, last Wednesday night to Thursday, to the applause and honking of other taxi drivers.

Now “I will look for a job to earn money and help my family and my country”, added the young woman, orphaned by her parents, whose grandparents stayed in Kyiv when she decided to go to the Polish capital, initially by car, after walking.

After getting out of the taxis, drivers and passengers embraced in a charged farewell after a five-day voyage to Europe.

“I’m really exhausted but so relieved,” said Olga, who took a deep breath and arrived with her two children, refusing to give her last name because she feared for the safety of her relatives who had stayed in Ukraine.

Most of them refugees were women and children who have relatives or friends in Spain. With them, the trip was made by four dogs and a cat.

THE 46-year-old Olga Sokarievawho traveled with one of her two sons, 15 years old, left behind her husband and her other son, who “are fighting for our lives, for the independence of our country”.

“We do not know if we will still have a home and what our future will be,” she said anxiously during the trip.

The motorcade, which departed from Madrid on March 11th, consisted of a total of 29 taxis, with two drivers each, taking turns at the wheel.

How the idea was born

The idea for the initiative was born during a discussion between drivers at Madrid airport about the bombing of the Russian army in Ukraine.

One suggested they go to Poland to take in refugees and others agreed, explained Jose Miguel Funeth, a spokesman for the Professional Taxi Association of Madrid, which coordinated the project.

“The response has been incredible. We were not expecting that”, confessed.

THE Javier Hernandez, carrying a couple and their 12-year-old son said he “could not sit like that” with his arms crossed when he saw pictures of children and women leaving to escape the war.

“Within a day their lives were turned upside down,” he continued, stressing that he only did what I do every day in Madrid: I drove”.

Silent when they left Poland, the refugees refused to get off when the taxis made their first stops, he said, before “hugging them and starting to tell jokes”.

The cost of the business, about 50,000 euros, mainly for fuel and tolls, was covered by amounts offered by solidarity taxi drivers. “It was unbelievable (…). “The children of some drivers even gave the money they had to their piggy banks,” said Jesus Andrades, one of the coordinators.

Madrid taxi drivers have a tradition of such gestures of solidarity. Following the terrorist attack at the Atocha station in the Spanish capital in 2004 – when 191 people lost their lives – they took the initiative to transport the injured to hospitals. When the new coronavirus epidemic broke out in Spain in 2020, doctors went door-to-door for tests and transported patients to hospitals.

More than three million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, according to United Nations figures.

Like other drivers, Nuria Martinez, 34, who carried a mother and her two-month-old baby, says she is ready to leave again, to go and get other refugees. “We can do nothing, just sit on the couch. “This is our small contribution,” he explained.