Diego Moncayo, an Ecuadorian who is still trapped in Ukraine by war and scams

Ecuadorian Diego Moncayo is one of the few foreigners who remain in the town of Shostka, in the Sumy oblast (region) in eastern Ukraine, trapped by the Russian war and the cunning of swindlers that they have lied to him with offers to get him out of that area besieged by tanks.

His mother, Jeaneth Mendoza, from Quito, suffers the drama of her son on a daily basis and fights for there to be some exit door for Diego, 20 years old, who went to Ukraine two years ago to study philology, to exploit his enormous aptitude for languages.

Diego was surprised by the Russian bombing at the Kiev airport just after a call from his motherwhich encouraged him to leave as soon as possible as the war progressed.

Along with his roommates, two Ukrainian girls and a young man, Diego took a train west, away from the conflict, but ended up in Sumy, in the east, very close to the Russian border and where bullets were exploding.

Absorbed and abandoned, the four tried to go west, but no one helped them and they had to take shelter in a shelter in Sumy, where they heard the sounds of war.

Caught along with his companions in the crossfire, fate took their hands and took them away from the hard zone, to Shostka, where one of the girls who housed the two men in a room in her house was from.

all roads cut off

Almost two weeks have passed since that episode and Diego has already begun to have doubts about being able to escape the ghost of war, despite the fact that his mother assures that emotionally “he is strong”.

In Shostka the situation is more or less calm, the great skirmishes of the conflict are not heard, the banks work and an apparent tranquility is breathed.

“It is a town that I think has already been taken over by the Russians” and where there is “an ugly calm, because they have an apparent normality, everything works, but they are surrounded by tanks, surrounded by weapons,” said the mother.

Now, “the products are beginning to be scarce, since no one can enter or leave” the town, whose access routes, all of them, are cut off.

Diego has tried to flee the place three timesand has resorted to people who have promised to get him out in exchange for money, although in the end they have only tried to take advantage of the situation, added Jeaneth.

Authorities have confirmed that “the tracks are cut off,” making it impossible to make another attempt to escape on their own, the mother added: “The authorities are our only alternative,” she remarked.

keeps hope

Jeaneth sees a glimmer of hope at the announcement by the Russian authorities to give her a way out of their territory, although the Ukrainians have warned that they would not allow it due to the war situation in the area.

The International Red Cross, in coordination with Ecuador, has confirmed that it will give the greatest attention to the case of Diego Moncayo, and that it will try to evacuate him when there is an open window to do so.

“We have to trust international organizations” and everything that can favor Diego. “We can’t do much” from here, lamented the mother.

She knows that she must go step by step and take care of all the edges of the problem. At the moment she is worried about how to send her money so she can survive, because the only condition for her to stay in the house where she is is that she collaborate with the maintenance of that home.

“Diego is very sorry, Ukraine was like his second nationality, she suffers when she sees the Ukrainians, they are poor people, they live day to day”, the mother commented on the conversations she permanently has with her son through the “blessed cell phone”.

She, like her son, demonstrates the strength of character to cope with this via crucis, but assures: “It is impotence, not knowing, living day to day”, as well as “the uncertainty that if he is going to die or not” .

For this reason, “we must do our best to make it come back,” added the mother. (I)