Ukrainian man with van evacuates 200 from Mariupol in battered red vehicle

He purchased the van with help from friends and repaired it between trips to Mariupol

A former nightclub owner in Mariupol has become an unsung hero among locals in war-torn Ukraine as the 36-year-old risked his life to help evacuate more than 200 civilians from the ravaged city.

Since 8 March, Mykhailo Puryshev drove into Mariupol six times in his battered red van, escaping Russian forces and their attacks.

After these trips, he posted videos of the city, offering a rare glimpse of the death and destruction caused by the Russian forces.

“When I first went, the city was like a cloud of smoke, like a bonfire... The last time I went it was just ash with the black coal of buildings,” Mr Puryshev told Reuters.

He had purchased the van with donations from friends to help those still trapped in Mariupol.

During one such trip into the war-torn city, the windshield, three side windows and a side door were destroyed by a Russian strike.

“Thank God no one was inside [at the time],” he said, adding that he has often repaired the van between these dangerous trips.

“The bus came under shelling, a strike, mortar, rifle fire, to be honest, there are so many marks of war on it,” he said.

Mr Puryshev was forced to put an end to his trips on 28 March, when he was threatened and told to never return. But he has faith. “We’ll turn it into a monument when we return to Mariupol” after the war, he said.

“The only injury I had was a glass shard in my side. But my coat saved me and I only got a scratch. God protected me of course. My bus looked after me,” he said.

Ukrainian officials claim that more than 20,000 have died since the Russian invasion of Mariupol.

Mykhailo Puryshev poses for a selfie photo with people fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia (Courtesy of Mykhailo Puryshev/Handout via Reuters)

An estimated 100,000 people are still trapped in the besieged city, according to Kyiv officials.

Ukrainian officials have also claimed that the identified mass graves outside the city of Mariupol add to the proof that Russia is inflicting war crimes against the local populace.

Last week, Vadym Boichenko, the mayor of Mariupol, said that women, children and the elderly had died on the streets of the city. “Unfortunately, we have seen that the bodies of dead Mariupol residents have begun to disappear from the streets of our city.”

Mykhailo Puryshev poses for a selfie photo in front of a car as he evacuates people fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia (Courtesy of Mykhailo Puryshev/Handout via Reuters)

Meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin on Tuesday agreed “in principle” to the UN and International Committee for the Red Cross’ involvement in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Ukraine’s Mariupol.

“Follow-on discussions will be held with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Russian Defence Ministry,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement after the Russian president met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Moscow.

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