The war, unpredictable and scary, causes suffering and destroys the lives of thousands of people. It is currently at the center of attention of every Ukrainian and has a huge impact on our country and society. As a result, at some point, each of us had to face a difficult choice that decided our fate.
This challenge was also faced by Oleksandra, an ordinary girl who lived a peaceful life in the Kyiv region, but due to the full-scale invasion was forced to leave her home, her relatives and friends, as well as her past, peaceful life, and move to another country – France. Olexandra’s story will resonate with anyone who knows how hard it is to leave your home.
What are your earliest memories and feelings of February 24, when the full-scale invasion began?
I woke up at 4 a.m. from loud noises, thinking it was just lightning or thunder. I came out of the room and saw that no one in my family was sleeping, everyone was running around, gathering stuff and panicking. I came out, and when I asked what happened, my mother answered: “They’re bombing”. My younger brother was the first to wake the family up, saying, “I heard a loud noise, like explosions.” We live in a private house, we don’t have a basement, but our neighbors had one, so we got ready and went to them. I did not understand anything, I was scared, and everyone was in a state of great tension and uncertainty.
How long did you stay with your neighbors? What made you move?
We didn’t want to leave until the last minute, but when a rocket fragment hit the neighboring house, we were all very scared. After what happened to my aunt, who lives in Brovary in a private house, it became even more frightening. That evening, she and her husband were working at the hospital, and only their son was at home. Good thing he hid in the basement because, at that very moment, a rocket fell near their house and destroyed everything. Miraculously, their dog, who was outside at the time, also survived. And then our neighbor, who had left for Poland on the first day, was on her way back to pick up her animals: a cat and a dog. And she offered us to go together. Without thinking twice, we packed our things and left.
Did your whole family go?
No, my father and our animals stayed at home. And also my grandmother: she has a missing leg and lives on the 4th floor of the Darnytsia district, which is quite far from our home. She cannot walk and go down to the shelter because she uses a wheelchair. My dad takes care of her, as well as my aunt’s dog.
How long did your journey last? Did you stop in other countries before coming to France?
Our neighbor accompanied us to Poland. Since we live in a small village and there are no trains from there, we had to go to Lviv, then we had to take a train to Fastiv and then change to the train to Lviv. It happened at night, there were no seats, and there were 8-10 people in each compartment.
In Lviv, we went to the queue for the train going to Warsaw, Poland. We had a choice – either to wait for the train for 6 hours or to get on the train that was coming in 20 minutes, but it was full, and we would have to travel standing up. We chose the second option. Sometimes we sat on improvised chairs, for example, made of our briefcases. We spent 3 hours at customs – people were let out one by one by wagons to check their documents, and ironically, we were the last ones. We waited for an hour to be let out of the wagon. It was cold, and we were tired because we had been standing all the way.
When we arrived in Warsaw, our neighbor accommodated us in her apartment, and we lived in the corridor for a week. We didn’t know where to go or what to do next. By chance, it turned out that my mother’s sister knew a girl in France, and this woman asked if we needed help with housing and said that she could provide it. So we moved to France
So you lived in Poland before going to France? Were you there for only a week?
Yes, just a week. We traveled to France by train, with one stopover in Berlin, Germany. We traveled the whole way for free, but we had to pay from Berlin to Strasbourg (France). However, we got a discount and paid half the price. From Strasbourg, we went to a small town near it, Colmar, where my mother’s sister’s friend, Maria, lived. We spent the first night at her house because we arrived at night and everything in France was closed. We wanted to go to the Red Cross Society, but it was only open until 19:00. The next morning, Maria took us to a charity organization called Espoir, which provided us with a hotel room only until they found us an apartment.
We received financial assistance only for a month after receiving our documents (which took two weeks to process). We needed to earn money, and Maria offered my mother a job because she works as a designer in Ukraine. In this town, Kolmar, there were often fairs, so she wanted to arrange for us to be able to sell small handmade souvenirs. That’s how we got our first job.
Later, we moved to an apartment that we had to share with an old lady. Now my mother works for a charity organization, she gives a second life to old things. And I help her with this.
You said that you were traveling together, and you have a younger brother. How old is he, and how did he handle all of it?
My brother was 8 years old at the time, he will be 10 in two weeks. He wasn’t afraid, he wasn’t afraid of the explosions, as he said, he was “more scared of the spiders that lived in the basement”. But when we moved, every loud sound made him wake up and cry.
Did you return home during the full-scale invasion?
Yes, but I was the only one who returned. At first, I needed to earn money for the ticket (which cost a lot of money), so I worked for money at a winery, picking grapes for wine. We worked from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. under the scorching sun, but it was worth it. I returned home for a month in November, but due to certain circumstances, I had to go back abroad.
How did you adapt to everything? How did you learn the language?
I was sent to a French school, where I studied, even though I had already graduated from school in Ukraine. But according to French law, since I was a minor, I had to go to school. There I studied regular school subjects and French. I studied together with French and Ukrainians in the same class, and I was able to find friends who helped me with my studies.
Do people in France support our country?
All the French people I met were supportive and worried about us. The landlady of our apartment watches the news every day and constantly asks about my father and relatives, and whether everything is fine.
What are your plans for the future?
Of course, I want to go back, but I can’t at the moment. I have met many Ukrainians who were not very worried about the war in the country, and for them, it (the Russian invasion – ed.) was just a way to get abroad and start a different life. I don’t see any benefits for myself, because I miss my home and the friends and relatives I left behind. I don’t want to study in this country, I don’t want to think about future plans in this country. My home is not here. My home is in Ukraine. And I will definitely come back home.
Translator: Zoriana Karpenko
