From the first hours of the full-scale war, Kharkiv was under fire. Some of the trucks did not have time to reach the ATP on Rohanska Street, 160. They remained in different regions of Ukraine, and this saved them. But other cars for international transportation were still on the territory of ATP. The office and warehouse have already been damaged by shelling. It became clear that the trucks had to be evacuated.
Grabko Ivan Mykhailovych, our driver, agreed to help.
– Why did I do that? This is my life! – Ivan Mykhailovych worked at ATP for more than 20 years.
Alone in the field is not a warrior. Grabko gathered other drivers: Roman Krivenko, Vitaly Bosenko, Valentin Basov (who, by the way, resigned from ATP before the war). Another driver was an acquaintance of Valentina.
All of them were in Krasnograd at that time. But they decided to leave their families and go, save the trucks. As the drivers said later, no one expected money and were surprised that the company paid them for it.
Ivan Mykhailovych remembers that day briefly, but his voice conveys emotions:
– We found some crazy taxi driver who took us from Krasnograd to Kharkiv for 4,000 hryvnias. Everyone goes from there, and we – on the contrary. When they arrived in Kharkiv, the military stopped them at a checkpoint and ordered everyone to leave. We showed them documents, passes for work, then they missed.
Run to the office, there are no windows, the wind is blowing. The wall is being shelled by walkers. Miraculously, I found the keys to the trucks, documents.
They left under fire, marched in a column. I shout to them: “Guys, let’s go!”
Our drivers – rescuers drove without stopping, clearly. Stopped for the first time in Valky.
Two walkers did so, seven Volvo vans, tractors with trailers, and one passenger car were taken away.
The cars were evacuated to Krasnograd, they were placed in the yards according to the agreement. Almost all the owners, except one, did not take money for it.
That’s how, thanks to the saved cars, the company was able to continue working, to contribute to the victory.
ATP drivers – 16363 – incredible. Real heroes!
And this is not the only such story of salvation.
To be continued.
