Ukrainian climbs Mount Everest with a blue and yellow flag
On the top of Mount Everest, Ukrainian Antonina Samoylowa has one appeal to the world for help directed. As the 33-year-old mountaineer reported to the AFP news agency on Wednesday, she scaled the highest mountain in the world with the flag of her home country in hand. When she spread them out on the summit, tears welled up in her eyes, Samoylova said. The 33-year-old’s father and brother are fighting Russian troops in their homeland.
“Stand with Ukraine” (Stands with Ukraine) read the blue and yellow flag that Samoylova held aloft on Mount Everest. Global attention to their country is dwindling, the 33-year-old told AFP after returning to Kathmandu. “It’s not good for us Ukrainians because we need more help. We need the whole world to help us.”
Samoylova was on the Pico de Orizaba, Mexico’s highest mountain, when she learned of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to her own statements, she received the first information about the war from her Sister who had taken shelter in an air raid shelter in Kyiv. Her father and brother volunteered for the Ukrainian army, says Samoylowa.
Before her ascent of Mount Everest, she had not had any contact with them for days. In the meantime, however, she has learned that it had recently been quiet in the region of the two. “I was like, ‘Phew, thank goodness!‘” says the mountaineer. Samojlowa has set herself the goal of climbing the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. Prior to Mount Everest, she has already scaled Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus and Mount Vinson in Antarctica.
But before she continues her climbing tour, Samoylova wants to first travel to Croatia, where her sister and nephew have found refuge. Afterwards she wants to visit her father and brother in Ukraine. “I just want to hug her,” she said. (AFP)