https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/features-62316233.amp
Andrii, 19, together with his mother were deported to Russia from Mariupol. First, they were taken to Russian occupied territory by bus. The family spent a couple of days in a filtration camp. Their phones and bodies were examined and their documents taken away. They had a choice to stay there, in camp, or to travel to Russia. The family decided to take the second route because there was a chance of escaping through the Russian-Estonian border.
Together with 60 other deported people, Andrii’s family was transferred to Taganrog and placed in a boarding house. They were ordered to apply for Russian passports and wait for their approval for 3 months. Andrii and his mother did this, but the young man was dissatisfied with the situation. He decided to escape no matter what. His mother, on the contrary, wanted to stay in the boarding house in Taganrog, Russia. She went through enormous stress and couldn’t mentally go through another escaping Russia.
Andrii found volunteers who secretly helped to cross the border. After a lot of struggle and many weeks of exhausting travel, bureaucracy and hell, he ended up in Norway.