the now-famous theater that, in a matter of weeks, would be the site of one of the most grotesque bombings in this war. the theater, still in tact. the city s buildings, unscathed. she sees the peaceful faces of families and children. the video is hard to watch. are these people alive or left in makeshift graves around the city? katya doesn t know and, for her, there is only one way to deal with this haunting reality. i decided that i will cry only when the ukrainians get victory. reporter: ed lavandera, cnn, odesa, ukraine. renewed russian offensive in ukraine could be just days away. coming up, we will take you to a town at the very edge of the government s control in eastern ukraine. you are watching cnn newsroom. we ll be right back.
girl survived until cnn found her in the basement of a chirp s hospital in eastern ukraine after surviving lifesaving surgery. for katya, relief is overwhelmed by the horrors of what she witnessed. i saw a lot of dead people. a lot of graves on the street, for example, in my yard. and i um started to believe that they crazy. because they, um, were like maniacs. they were maniacs to you? yes. they re they re really crazy, like nazis in the second world war. reporter: after escaping, katya remembered the videos she recorded before the russians ravaged mariupol. ukrainians protesting outside
that they crazy because they were like maniacs. they were maniacs to you? yes. they re really crazy, like nazis in the second world war. reporter: after escaping, ka katya remembered the videos she recorded before the russians ravaged mariupol. ukrainians protesting outside the now-famous theater that, in a matter of weeks, would be the site of one of the most grotesque bombings in this war. the theater, still in tact. the city s buildings unscathed. she sees the peaceful faces of family and children. the video is hard to watch. are these people alive? or left in makeshift graves around the city? katya doesn t know and, for her, there is only way to deal with
reporter: when the first bomb struck mariupol, katya thought her most effective weapon would be a gentle smile, and the ability to calm terrified families. she lived in an underground shelter, coordinating relief supplies for the trapped civilians of this besieged city. so watching your city get bombed and destroyed. people are being killed. you decide not to leave, but to help? it s horrible. the animals didn t allow even children to go out from the city. reporter: day by day, the video katya captured showed life in mariupol unraveling. she lost touch with the outside world. none of her family and friends outside the city knew if she was alive or dead. life here was falling into an abyss. it was like middle age. like the middle ages? yes.
reporter: it s almost like you could feel yourself running out of time. there was only so much longer you could stay in mariupol. i thought i will never go from mariupol, until the end. reporter: on march 16th, katya evacuated. she recorded two short videos on her way out, just before seeing a family walking on the side of the road a mother, grandmother, and two young girls. so we had two free places in our car, and we saw this family. and we decided to help them. reporter: at one of the russian military checkpoints, they stopped in front of a soldier. and he s show us, go out, and turn on our car and after that begun to shoot. one of the bullets pierced the car over her head but in the backseat, was an 11-year-old shot in the face. the russians realizing their mistake, sent the girl to a hospital. katya, now separated, traveled on without knowing if the kyoun