Picture Credit: Twitter
People in Ukraine are going through a really tough time. Their neighboring country Russia has declared war against them. Every Ukrainian citizen is praying for their life amid all the chaos. Apart from the citizen of the country, there are so many foreign nationals who are stuck and are trying desperately to get out of there. Those who have managed to sneak out of the country consider themselves lucky.
But the way out of Ukraine is not that easy. And as Lucious "Lucky" Jones explains, it leaves an ache on the mind and the body. Jones is a basketball player from Maryland who was in Ukraine's Ternopil, a town about two hours east of Lviv. In an interaction with CNN, Jones explained how he and three of his teammates managed to escape out of Ukraine amid the Russian invasion.
Jones first talked about a call he received from the coaches and league officials asking him to pack his bags and leave immediately. "My heart dropped," Lucky told CNN on Monday, "They called and said, 'Hey, pack your stuff, it's time to go, they're bombing.'" Jones further explained how he found everything frustrating. "It was very frustrating because I didn't know what was going to happen or what I was going to do," Lucky said.
Nonetheless, he went ahead and started his journey to his home, about 5000 miles away. He and his teammates were picked up by a car and headed to Poland but with borders closed, they had to head back into the town. The convoy changed the plans and started its journey to Romania. With border issues there as well, Jones with others had to walk a few miles. They could not sleep, found a little to eat, and had to break loose in the open.
Lucky Jones found all of this very hard on his body as well as mind but had no option other than to continue. "It was very, very tough on my body and mind," Lucky said, "I was ready to just break down and go to sleep, but I couldn't. I had so many things on my mind and so many things to do to get out of there safe and sound." They also faced trouble while trying to cross the border as so many others were also trying to get to the other side. However, they managed to enter Romania, thanks to Jones' wife, Marissa who was arranging things sitting in Maryland.
The convoy took a train to the capital of Romania, Bucharest. Then they managed to get a flight out of Romania to Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Friday morning. Upon reaching Amsterdam, Jones and others booked themselves a hotel, took some rest, changed clothes, and other things. Post that, another flight took them through Dublin, Ireland, and eventually to the United States.
It was a real traumatic experience: Jones
The Maryland player says he won't be able to focus on his game for some time now as all of this left a big impact on his mind. "I'm not really focused on basketball right now as far as myself, because this was a real traumatic experience," he said. Jones will focus on training and coaching kids in the sport rather than his own skills. This means, no one knows when he will be back.
