In the train where he was, the lights had to remain extinguished, and the blinds closed. Outside, in the distance, explosions echoed. In the wagon, around him, hundreds of people were crowded between the stacked suitcases. Fear was everywhere.
Posted at 5:46 p.m.
“I was no longer there, I no longer existed. Professional hockey player Eliezer Sherbatov takes his time when he recounts the “longest 24 hours of [sa] life “. Those during which he crossed Ukraine from east to west to flee the war against the Russian invader. And those during which he felt “in 1940”.
Even though his family left Israel when he was a baby, the adopted Quebecer has always kept a strong attachment to the Jewish state, which he has represented on the international scene several times. “Proud” of his “Jewish heritage”, he obviously does not compare what he experienced to the Holocaust. But he is also not insensitive to the fact that his experience took place in a country where a million Jews were exterminated during the Second World War.
Finally back home in Laval, Sherbatov explains to The Press how happy he is to be alive. Several times, since last Thursday, he doubted seeing his wife and children again, those he hugged on his return to Quebec. Every hour the tears come back.
Since the start of the season, the former QMJHL player has been playing in the Ukrainian Super League. Even though the tension between the country and Russia was rising every day, last week his team, Mariupol HC, still traveled to Druzhkivka in the east of the country to play a game there. Thursday morning, the shelling began in Kramatorsk, about twenty kilometers away. The whole team was confined to the hotel, not knowing what to expect. Impossible to return to Mariupol, a city also targeted by the Russian invasion. The Press had reported the story Thursday during the day.
Time passed and Sherbatov remained without a concrete answer from the Canadian government for a possible evacuation. According to him, he was advised to stay under cover until further notice. Leaving with all his teammates was also not an option because, he said, getting “on a bus with the team was like provoking one of the two armies to get shot”.
Help from Israel
He therefore turned to the government of Israel, a country of which he is also a national. His appeal was heard and the embassy put him in touch with an organization dedicated to repatriating Israelis from conflict zones – the name of the organization escapes him.
He was expected at the Israeli Embassy in Warsaw, Poland. But the road to get there would be long, he was warned.
A single train could transport him from Druzhkivka to Lviv, completely in the west of the country. Its route of some 1,200 kilometers included stops in Kramatorsk, Kharkiv and Kiev, all three besieged. Only one departure was still on the schedule, that of Friday at 4:50 p.m. With two of his teammates and the team doctor, they bought the last four tickets.
At 4:50 p.m., the train was still not at the station. A rumor spread: the trains were being fired upon, hence the delay. A soldier on the spot claimed, rightly or wrongly, that getting on the next train was equivalent to a 50% risk of never getting out.
One of Sherbatov’s teammates decided not to go any further. Without appetite and deprived of sleep since the day before, the Montrealer was struggling to make a decision. He phoned his father.
“I explained to him that it was literally a matter of life or death,” says the 30-year-old player. We talked to each other and we made the decision that if the train arrived, it would be because God wants it. We had to go there. »
The train finally arrived. Then began the “longest 24 hours of [sa] life “.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY ELIEZER SHERBATOV
View of the interior of the train, where the passengers piled up as best they could next to the piles of luggage.
At each stop, dozens and dozens of travelers of all ages, often without tickets, jumped aboard. In Kharkiv, “I had the dog,” says Sherbatov.
When he ventured to half-open the closed blinds, he saw the snow-covered landscapes pass by. He wondered if he was on a “death train”.
Smooth
The trip ended up going smoothly. In Lviv, the aid organization assembled a group of 17 Israeli nationals on the bus that would take them to the border, 70 kilometers away. Armbands bearing the word “IL” were distributed to them to identify them with their country of origin. Sherbatov was appointed as the head of the group, mostly made up of mothers with children and the elderly.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY ELIEZER SHERBATOV
Armbands marked “IL” were distributed to identify Israeli nationals.
En route, the bus was checked by the army “every five minutes”. Passports, armbands were shown. We were talking. And we were back on the road.
We had to walk the last stretch. Near the border, it’s “the jungle”: thousands of people waiting to cross, huge traffic jams. It’s cold. Eliezer makes sure his group stays together.
After “several hours”, the 17 crossed the border. As soon as they arrived in Poland, they were taken care of and transported to Warsaw, to the Israeli embassy. Once there, 24 hours after leaving Lviv, “everyone was crying”. The Quebecer was able to prepare his departure for Montreal, with a stopover in Toronto.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY ELIEZER SHERBATOV
Eliezer Sherbatov, right, shows the train ticket that changed his life. “I’ll have it framed,” he promises. With him, the Latvian hockey player Dennis Berdniks, who was able to accompany him even if he is not Israeli.
All his personal belongings remained at his apartment in Mariupol, located very close to places of clashes. He presumes to have “lost everything”. But that didn’t matter to him when he hugged his children to him late Monday night. For the first time, he took in his arms his 3-month-old baby, whose birth he missed because he was in Ukraine. He lay down next to his 2-year-old daughter, who was asleep when he arrived. “I just stayed there. And I was crying. »
“I’m so happy, especially since I thought I’d never see them again,” Sherbatov said. It’s not just a way of speaking. »
He still cannot explain why he did not receive help from the Canadian government. “If I hadn’t had my Israeli passport, I would still be in a bomb shelter,” he believes.
Slowly the dust settles and he feels life returning to him. The little family must go to Tel Aviv in May, and he would like the trip to take place.
“At first, I said to myself: it’s over, I’m not moving from here,” he said with a rare smile in his voice.
“But on the contrary: I have to start living even more. You never know when you’re going to die. When you hear the bombs go off, it could be any second. Now I know what it is. »
Soon a bio
For six months Eliezer Sherbatov has been working with author Anna Rosner on an autobiography entitled My Left Skate, a reference to the disability that affects his left foot. The deadline for delivery of the manuscript has just been pushed back, because, he says, “it was absolutely necessary to add a chapter” on the events of the last days. The book is due out in bookstores next fall.