A well-known pastor and chaplain from Mariupol, Hennady Mokhnenko, founder and head of the largest children's Rehabilitation Center "Republic of Pilgrim" and a network of Rehabilitation Centers for adults, evacuated the pupils of his center in the first days of the war, and later he managed to evacuate over one thousand Mariupol residents.
The Russians called this center for teenagers in difficult life situations a Nazi base, therefore this evacuation took place under the shelling and at a surprising speed, TSN reported.
Now pastor Hennadiy Mokhnenko is in Lviv and from here sets off for a two-week business trip to Europe and the United States to tell the world about the horrors that the Russians committed in Mariupol.
"What happened to my hometown is genocide, without a doubt. They turned my city into a cemetery," says the pastor.
The rehabilitation center that Hennady Mokhnenko organized in Mariupol was known throughout the city. The pastor provided shelter to orphans, teenagers and women in difficult life situations, but now the work of his life is destroyed.
"Now the Russian Commandant's office is located in my house, they are sleeping in the beds of my children. I had 35 foster children, but I couldn't go back and take out one of my daughters, they killed her," says the pastor.
Hennady began to evacuate his pupils and children from Mariupol on the first day of the war. Having rescued his relatives, he undertook to evacuate other fellow countrymen. In a few months, together with other chaplains and volunteers, he evacuated more than 1,200 Mariupol residents. It was especially difficult when it was necessary to rescue the families of military personnel.
"We found ways to avoid filtration systems. Many of those we evacuated would not have had a single chance, had they got to the filtration system," he says.
All the rescued people tell about the atrocities of the Russians and the city littered with corpses.
The mother of volunteer Stas got out of Mariupol by stealth, she had to flee through Russia.
"She headed to Starobeshevo to a filtration camp, she passed filtration, and they found fault with her as she was registered as a resident of Lviv and had lived in Lviv for 7 years. Then she got from Moscow to Riga, and later I picked her up," the man says.
"Mariupol is worth a thousand of Buchas. Two days ago, one house was opened, one out of thousands, and more than 200 people were found dead in the basement, but they burn the people killed by them in crematoria, quite an innovation offered by the rashist genocide," says Hennady.
Hennady wants to tell all this to people who live in other countries and then return to the Donetsk region again - to rescue everyone he can.