KRAKOW, Poland (WMBB) — A Panama City Beach business owner described his harrowing three-day trek out of Ukraine.
Club La Vela owner Patrick Pfeffer was in Ukraine when Russian troops invaded.
Pfeffer said he found himself among the tens of thousands of refugees fleeing by any means possible.
Pfeffer had been living in Kyiv for the last three years.
As tensions rose, he caught one of the last planes to western Ukraine’s Lviv, planning to return to Kyiv in a week or two.
When he arrived in Lviv, life still seemed relatively normal.
But things changed rather dramatically a few days later when a series of early morning air-raid alarms woke the city.
“You started seeing lines at the ATMs, people trying to withdraw money,” Pfeffer said. “People running to pharmacies to get their medical supplies and prescription and stuff. Buses started running and they were overfilled with people trying to go further west. There was a sense of urgency and people were worried. You could see it on their face. It was an ugly situation.”
With taxis and Ubers virtually shut down, and standstill traffic for 50 miles, Pfeffer found himself pondering his next steps.
“I was stuck… I didn’t know what to do,” Pfeffer said. “I didn’t know whether I should hang out and hope for the best and stay in a bomb shelter or whether I should think of a more ingenious way to get out of there.”
He was able to hitch a ride further west toward Poland.
But he had to walk a little more than 30 miles to reach the border.
“The closer you got, the more misery you saw,” Pfeffer said. “There were no bathrooms. Babies needed dapper changes. There was no food, there was no support because all the state resources were being used at the front on the East. There was no support at all. We had no blankets. We had no water, no food, nothing.”
Pfeffer entered Poland on Sunday and said he is safe and comfortable.
He added that he is incredibly proud of his new people for the fight they are putting up against Russia.
“It’s like David against Goliath, but they are hanging in there,” Pfeffer said. “They are doing it and they are not giving up. They are fighting. They’re resilient and they love their country and they will die for it.”
Pfeffer also said he is grateful to see all of the protests both big and small nationwide in support of Ukraine and that it does not go unnoticed by the people of Ukraine.