Her first reports of the war came from a Kiev bomb shelter where her sister was hiding.
Kathmandu, Nepal:
On the roof of the world Antonina Samoilova held a blue-yellow panel with the inscription “Stand With Ukraine”, when her father and brother served in the army, defending their country from Russian invasion.
The 33-year-old girl had tears in her eyes when she unfurled a Ukrainian flag on top of Everest last week, she said today after returning to Kathmandu.
She was concerned that the world’s attention had shifted from her country’s plight after Russia’s invasion.
“It’s a pity … it’s not good for us Ukrainians because we need more help, we need the whole world to help us,” she told AFP. “In Ukraine, it is not over yet.
“I knew even before the expedition that I was the only Ukrainian on Everest this year. It made me push myself to the top because I knew that if it wasn’t me, then who?” she said.
Ms. Samoilova was on top of Pico de Orissabo, Mexico’s highest mountain, in February when news of the Russian invasion reached her.
Her first reports of the war came from a Kiev bomb shelter where her sister was hiding.
As she climbed Mount Everest, she had days in her head without contact with her father and brother, who had volunteered to fight.
When she returned, she learned that their region was quiet. “I thought,‘ Wu! Thank God! ”She said.
And her phone was buzzing with hundreds of messages of support from friends and strangers as soon as she got to base camp.
“Tonya, you are not only our honor, you are the pride of all of Ukraine,” – said her father in the text.
Nepal has issued 319 permits to foreign climbers, each accompanied by at least one guide, for this spring’s Everest climbing season, which runs from mid-April to late May.
The country only opened its peaks for climbers last year after a pandemic closed the industry in 2020.
The rare window of good weather has already allowed more than 450 climbers and guides to reach the summit of Everest since a team of Nepalese climbers opened the route on May 7, bringing relief to the expedition’s operators.
At least three climbers, a Russian and two Nepalese, have died on Everest since the start of the season.
Ms. Samoilova is aiming to join a select club of climbers to climb seven peaks – the highest mountains on every continent – and has already completed Kilimanjaro in Africa, European Elbrus and Mount Vinson in Antarctica.
But first she plans to see her sister and nephew, who fled to Croatia, and then go to visit her father and brother in Ukraine.
“I just want to hug them,” she said.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and published from a syndicated tape.)
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