The 140-mile journey that Igor Pedin, 61, embarked upon by foot from the hellscape of the besieged port city of Mariupol, through Russian occupied lands in the south-east of Ukraine and on to the relative safety of the city of Zaporizhzhia, has left him tired, sometimes tearful, and always thankful.
As the Guardian reported last week, Pedin’s feat was so extraordinary that at one of the 24 checkpoints he passed during his travels on the long journey, equivalent to trekking from London to Sheffield but through a raging war, Russian soldiers had gathered around him in the dark of the night to hear of his daring deeds, stuffing cigarettes in his pockets, and wishing him luck.
