“Don’t worry, everything is fine for now”. Those are the last words received Michel Gayet, the mayor of Domvast, from his Ukrainian companion on March 6. The airport in the city where she lives, Vinnytsia, in central-western Ukraine, was bombed. Nine people died, according to Ukrainian relief.
“The last video I received from her is the impact of this bomb”says the elected Samarian, arrived in Poland the same day. It is first to recover his partner, Liudmyla, and the daughter of the latter, Mariia, aged 18, that he traveled from Domvast, town located north of Abbeville. Today, Michel Gayet says to himself “very worried, because I feel that it will be difficult for her to get out of all this”.
Ukrainians are very calm people, very composed, very resilient
And he is aware that leaving Ukraine, despite the fighting, will not be not an easy choice : “Her parents live a few dozen kilometers away, her brother is off to war… Knowing her, I think she might choose to stay with her brothers in arms and her family. I have to respect that. But maybe she’ll be out of here in a day or two, and everything will be better.”hopes Michel Gayet.
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Create “a human bridge” between Poland and the Somme
In the meantime, the elected Picard mobilized from Polandby helping the refugees hosted in the country, to “to get out of my slump in relation to Liudmyla”. This Saturday, March 5, Michel Gayet has indeed hit the road with “medicines, hygiene products, food products and then clothes” recovered thanks to the town hall of Abbeville and the Red Cross. “I left with 3-4 cubic meters of product in the car and in the trailer.”
And after have traveled 1,600 km Between “Belgium, the Netherlands and all of Germany”Michel Gayet arrived in Krakow, in a reception center for refugees. “As soon as I arrived, they understood why I was there, and five to six people came out to unload” donations before taking them to the center, a building of “20 meters wide and about 30 meters long on the ground floor”, says the chosen one. The medicines he brought went to Kharkiv, the country’s second city.
Four refugees expected in Abbeville
In the reception center in Krakow, “it’s crowded”says Michel Gayet again. “There are a lot of volunteers, Ukrainians who come to get dressed, to get something to eat or possibly diapers… It’s a real organization, which is done in an Olympian calm. Ukrainians are very calm, very composed, very resilient.”
But the Samarian mayor don’t stop at donations clothing and hygiene products. With this trip to Poland, he wishes “establishing a human bridge” towards the Somme. This Monday, at 5:30 a.m., he must take the road towards Duisburg, in Germany, with four refugees“a 44-year-old mother, another 35, a 10-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl”. A team from the town hall of Abbeville must then take care of them in the German city before taking them to France.
Michel Gayet will for his part take the road in the opposite direction, this time to Warsawto pick up other refugees.