A Chabad emissary to Donetsk who fled to Kiev encouraged families who found a way to escape in the middle of Saturday from the bombed-out Kiev towards the border. To a family stuck without fuel he gave his vehicle and ordered them to flee
Zalman Vishtzky is the brother of a Chabad emissary in Donetsk, Rabbi Pinchas Vishetsky, who fled with his family from the town near the Russian border to the capital, Kyiv.
“On Saturday it was beautiful, there was even a kiddush,” says Zalman, describing the fear: “They were all alert with a finger on the pulse, waiting to know that there is a way out of the city. Brother Zalman writes.
“After the Kiddush of Shabbat they greet as is the custom of Hasidim,” he says, “it became clear that there is a way for eight families to leave.
Not only that, “one of them says again ‘Hunger, I have no fuel, my tank is empty’. There is nowhere to buy fuel in these tropical days.” According to him, “The rabbi, my eldest brother, Rabbi Pinchas Vishtzky does not hesitate, goes to his place, takes out keys under the stand and says, ‘In my car there is a full container, you will transfer the woman and the children and set off.’
“And what about you, Hunger?”, The Jew wondered. “I will manage already, not Shabbat Geret. Good Shabbat,” Rabbi Vishetsky replied.