From Kazakhstan to Bucha: The Story of Konstantin Gudauskas

A recent interview on Sergey Lyubarsky's YouTube channel illuminates the remarkable story of Konstantin Gudauskas, a Kazakhstani political refugee whose experiences inspired the film Bucha. 

The film portrays how Gudauskas used his Kazakhstani passport to save 200 lives after the onset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking with Lyubarsky, he shared his journey from Kazakhstan to Ukraine.

A Legacy of Survival

Gudauskas comes from a diverse background: His grandmother was Ukrainian, his mother Jewish, and his father Lithuanian.

In 1947, his family was exiled to Kazakhstan, where seven of the twelve children perished during the journey to the steppes. He recalls his grandmother's observation that she feared communists more than Germans.

Gudauskas built a successful logistics business in Kazakhstan, managing cargo transport between China and Europe. 

He later became involved in human rights advocacy.

At some point, I became more and more interested in human rights activities, public activities, and then I headed the coalition for the protection of human rights and took an active part in the elections in 2019. After that, the candidate we supported, Amirzhan Kosanov, essentially betrayed us all, sold us out. For 10 million dollars, he admitted defeat in the elections before the official results were announced, said Konstantin Gudauskas.

His entire election team later faced pressure.

With help from international human rights organizations, Gudauskas managed to leave Kazakhstan, though his identification number was added to an extremist registry.

He arrived in Ukraine with just one suitcase and received political refugee status.

Starting Anew

In Ukraine, Gudauskas rebuilt his life, establishing a thriving network of electric car charging stations.

Though he enjoyed most of the rights of Ukrainian citizenship, he couldn't participate in politics.

The February 2022 invasion caught him off guard. He first learned about it on his second phone from Kazakhstani news sources.

From the first days of the war, Ukrainian intelligence approached me. We met a little earlier, during the events in Kazakhstan in January 2022. There, my friends and collegues who remained actively participated in the protests. Many activists died.

During the January events, his connection with Ukrainian intelligence began when they helped evacuate his friends to Azerbaijan. When the invasion started, they approached him for help in return.

A Kazakhstani Passport Becomes a Lifeline

A call from intelligence. They say that troops have already entered from the Belarusian side, they have already occupied them. And a family of intelligence officers remained there. I say: well, what can I do? They say, you have a Kazakhstani passport. And it is a friendly country for Russia. There is a chance that they will not kill you. You need to get this family out. They told me that a liaison would meet me and take me to the family. So I did, I got the family. And when I was driving, the worst thing was the seven kilometers from the Ukrainian checkpoint to the Russian one. These were seven kilometers of the zero gray zone. I read the Psalms of David. When I was getting the first family out of Bucha, the conversation between a Russian and a child was probably the most intense moment in my life. When a Russian soldier asked the child what his father's name was... Those seconds when he answered seemed like an eternity to me. Because I thought that children can't lie. And he could easily have said that his dad's name was Alexander. He said: Kostya. And if then he had said Sasha, then nothing more would have been.

During his rescue missions, Gudauskas lost five vehicles.

He maintained a strict policy of evacuating only people despite offers of payment to rescue valuables or animals.

I said: if you have money, you will find someone who will do it. I will only go for people.

The weight of those he couldn't save still troubles him:

There was a family that asked me to take them out. But when I arrived the next day, they died in their own home. I didn't make it. It was a very difficult moment for me. Because I remember the face of each of them. I remember this crying woman who asked me, she said: 'For God's sake.' And I said that tomorrow I would come for them. I just have a grandmother, she has diabetes, she is without insulin, she could die. Let me take her out today, and tomorrow I will take you. They did not survive. There was an incoming shell, a direct hit on the house. They burned alive.

Gudauskas also sustained a concussion when his car came under fire.

He witnessed horrific scenes at checkpoints, including elderly women being stripped and humiliated under the pretense of searching for tattoos or soldiers putting grenades in hoods as a joke.

I brought the phone, I hid it, hid it very well, and filmed it. When I posted a video on my Facebook page on March 12 where we were piling up dead people near the church in Bucha, well, there were just ditches, an unfinished church, the Ukrainians wrote to me that I was spreading fakes. Even Ukrainians didn't believe it. I buried 74 people with my own hands.

Looking Forward

Today, Gudauskas, continuing his fight for Ukraine, leads a volunteer team through his charity foundation, Bucha Help.

He continues his mission to assist others and plans to build a rehabilitation center by 2025 for those on the fronts.

Speaking about the film based on his experiences, he humbly describes himself as merely "the hands of God."

My mission is to save. I help the service members make it. I help them have a secure life. I help them return to their families. This is what I will continue to do.

Gudauskas maintains that wars eventually end, and the key is keeping one's humanity throughout. 

Original Author: Alexandra Mokhireva