Jessica St. John, better known to fans on the internet as ZeplaHQ is an American Twitch streamer who was until very recently living near the city of Kyiv in Ukraine.
Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine has already claimed hundreds of innocent lives, with thousands more displaced as a result of the conflict. There are countless stories of ordinary lives being completely shattered and up-ended. St. John has shared her own experience of escaping Kyiv, largely attributing her safety to the swift actions of her community.
St. John worked in Ukraine as an English teacher, before ultimately finding success on Twitch and YouTube. During a recent stream, she explained that she was actually asleep just as the attacks were starting. She woke up to dozens of messages in her community Discord from fans desperately trying to warn her of the imminent danger.
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The streamer said: "When the attacks started, Tag, the moderator in my Discord, called me and said, 'Hey, what's going on? Hey, are you safe? You need to let the Discord know that you're safe, everybody's worried about you.' We were asleep at the time, it was six in the morning and I didn't know what was going on."
With tears in her eyes, St. John recalled the moment the reality of the situation started to sink in.
"There was a moment where I froze and I was just in shock on the phone, I was just like, 'I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do.' I was just panicking immediately."
Fortunately, St. John and her partner were able to get out of the city and across the border "literally hours" before Russian forces mobilized. She claimed that they were among the last to cross before younger men were told they had to stay and fight. She believes the only reason they were so lucky is because her viewers warned her ahead of time.
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St. John has since confirmed on social media that she's safe and with her pets in Poland, but as admitted she has no idea where she'll go from there.
"I don't know where I'm gonna go. I actually have no clue," she said. "But keep in mind that there are other people, other dear friends of ours, that are fighting. They have been conscripted, or they are with children and they are hiding in bomb shelters, or they are hiding out in their homes. And we're watching the constant flood on Twitter of seeing our home burn."
Featured Image Credit: Twitch via ZeplaHQTopics: World News, Twitch
