A journey from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia in war-torn Ukraine | Ground report

India Today’s Geeta Mohan, who is reporting from war-hit country Ukraine, writes about her experience as she makes her way from Mariupol in Donetsk region to Zaporizhzhia, where Europe's largest nuclear plant is.

After two days of waiting for roads to clear up through Mariupol, around 10 am on Wednesday, I finally received a missive from my contact that we (my cameraperson Satya Routray and I) should be in the lobby of a hotel in twenty minutes. Someone from Russian military would meet us there to take us to Melitopol and then from there another contact would take us to Zapporizhia, where the largest nuclear plant is, which is now under the control of the Russian forces.

Patience, alertness and swiftness are keys to war reporting. We had been prepared for this trip for the last three days. Travelling light with backpacks, we kept our larger pieces of luggage in Donetsk with our navigator/fixer and now a friend, Alexander Shrembet.

This was a convoy of Russian elite forces, not the Donetsk People's Militia. We loaded or stuff in the van which was part of the convoy and basically carried all the fuel, food, supplies for the officers - the regular and special place for journalists travelling with the forces. We were asked to wear our bullet proof jackets and keep our helmets handy.

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22-year-old Anatoly, a young officer, was our escort in the van. The driver was about the same age. This trip was riddled with danger and adventure. As soon as we left the city area and entered the hinterland, our van broke down. While we were still in Russian-DPR controlled territory, the worry was that the five-hour journey would be through difficult areas and the vehicle should not break down then else we would find ourselves in real trouble.

The driver fixed the car with his tools. And the journey resumed with some lovely Russian music playing in the background. A lot of patriotic songs from WWII times which were considered pro-communist and anti-fascist. When a song bound all. The most well known song ‘Katyusha’ was played and everybody sang their own version of the Russian love-turned-patriotic song. We also had an Italian journalist, Luca Steinmann, who had joined us on the trip and he immediately recognised 'Katyusha' (Russian) as 'Fischia IL Vento' (Italian). He explained that the song reached Italy as an anti-fascist version during the World War and was translated in Italian. The other song was “I am a soldier”, a Russian military song. The young officers sang along and drove through the tank-beaten roads.

The weather was dreary and gloomy with continued showers. The van was warm until the young soldiers rolled down the windows to smoke, inviting the biting cold inside that froze us. Anything for a smoke, right? In this part of the world, I've learnt that it stands true in every sense of the word.