Oleksii is the father of three children. In Mariupol, he survived in a shelter. Together with 350 residents of Mariupol. He was engaged in the organisation of everyday life. He saw the destruction of the maternity hospital. The dead on the streets. He was at the bus station, where there were burned buses that were used to stop the tanks. Dozens of his relatives and friends died. There was no car to leave. 

Oleksii got 117 people out of Mariupol. 70 reached Ukraine. "People were walking with backpacks, bags, containers with cats, with small children, who also had backpacks and bags. Well, it's a big procession. My friends, when they realised that I was alive, wrote: "You are not Simonov, you are Simoses. You lead people through asphalt deserts." We saw all of russia at the 15 checkpoints: there were Udmurts, Kazakhs, and Chechens. The whole palette from Sakhalin."