Carried to a checkpoint, women, children, old people and a few rare men hurry to cross the roadblock of Ukrainian soldiers and rush into Red Cross minibuses, before letting their feelings go to Petchenigui.

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These evacuees have just passed from the Russian occupation zone, where they have been living in very difficult conditions since the start of the invasion on February 24, to finally reach the zone under Ukrainian control, near Kharkiv.

The features are drawn, the eyes darkened. Fatigue is visible on most faces and many cry as they sit in the minibus or discover relatives in some sort of party hall. They have the impression of having escaped a martyrdom.

"I breathe better," says Anna, an evacuated teacher with her two children aged 13 and 11, but who had to leave her husband. "It was the only solution with the children," she said, wiping her eyes.

The Russians opened a humanitarian corridor to let those who wanted to leave, but men under 60 had to stay. According to the Ukrainian army, 1,350 people crossed on Monday.

Incessant shuttles of minibuses and utility vehicles bring back the evacuees and their luggage from a checkpoint located on a dam and a lake serving as a demarcation between Ukrainian and Russian forces, separated by one or two kilometers.

No phone, no Internet

The stories are similar and the evacuated women do not want to give their names, out of fear for their husbands who remained on the Russian side.

“Relieved” to be there, but worried, Oksana left her husband, but brought back her two dogs, “who are part of the family”.

She was at her dacha when the war broke out. “It was exploding all over the road. We couldn't leave. Then the Russian tanks with the “Z” passed,” she says. They were trapped without being able to return to Kharkiv, the regional capital.

Russian troops failed to take Kharkiv, eventually withdrawing from the area to concentrate on other fronts. However, they have retained control of large territories east of Kharkiv and continue to shell the city and its surroundings.

So many territories “immersed in the Russian world”, quips Tetyana, a 19-year-old student, using a famous expression of President Vladimir Putin. She says she is “happy” to be back in her “native Ukraine” after three months.

In this "Russian world", "we did not go out into the street to avoid meeting" the soldiers, says Viktoria, Anna's colleague and mother of children aged 12 and 9, who also left her husband. The two teachers specify that they have continued to teach at a distance.

According to several women, the Russians confiscated the telephones and the inhabitants only used them in their homes. Internet was cut and electricity also, these last nine days.

Without being able to withdraw money, the inhabitants also find themselves without means of payment. But all point to the lack of food and the need for humanitarian aid.

Blocked on the other side

Another Anna, 30, a 2-year-old blond baby in her arms, had trouble consoling herself. “For a while it was quiet, but there started to be explosions. We had to go with my son. We are afraid for him, but my husband stayed there”.

“We realized that the war had started with the explosions. Russian vehicles were passing through the streets,” she continues. “We spent two days in the school cellar, we hoped. We didn't know what territory we were in, but then the Russians arrived and set up their checkpoint.

Anna will now go to relatives and hopes to see her husband again soon. "I hope that all will be well. But it was really hard to leave.

The local prosecutor, Edouard Mirgorodsky evokes "traumatized and frightened" populations. Its services are interviewing the displaced to see if there have been any war crimes.

"There is a lot of talk of kidnappings, thefts and also collaboration with the enemy," he said. Above all, he specifies that many candidates for departure could not be evacuated and remained blocked on the other side.

"Many, many people have stayed...", sighs Igor Klymenko, 46, member of the Red Cross, stressing that we must also bring humanitarian aid to the area: "We need help !”