Breaking out of Mariupol

He is a hero to all those he pulled out of a besieged Mariupol - he simply could not do otherwise, as he says himself. Mykhailo Puryshev was in Kiev when Russian troops invaded Ukraine, but the club with which he had earned his living until then - his pride and joy - was in Mariupol. It was once a place to party, dance, and forget everyday life - with more than a dozen staff and their families. Mykhailo wanted to at least save these people from the Russian shelling - and set off in a red minibus that he bought especially for that purpose. Across the front lines, past checkpoints, he repeatedly came under fire - and still kept going until it was no longer possible. He made the drive from Kiev to Mariupol and back at least half a dozen times, each time bringing food and medicine into the besieged city while also taking people out and bringing them to Kiev. Until that point, he had not known how you could love a country. But now, Mykhailo says, he knows - and he wants to continue fighting for a free Ukraine. A film by Mathias Bölinger.