They will wait for peace: a Ukrainian refugee family on the Slovak side
Alona, Sergei and their children in their apartment in Kosice, Slovakia, after fleeing the war in Ukraine.
© RFI / Alexis Bédu
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Convinced that the war in Ukraine will last, some Ukrainians have left their country and moved to other places.
Sergei, Alona and their children are in Košice, Slovakia, 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Advertising
Read more
With our special correspondent in Košice,
Alexis Bédu
The three little ones have barely woken up from a nap, in this clean apartment in a public housing estate on the heights of the city.
Now the family lives 1,200 kilometers from Kryvyi Rih, which Sergei and Alona decided to leave after
a horrific night in a bomb shelter
.
"
We are still far from being happy, but at least here it is a safe place for our children
," says Alona.
“Our life before was like a dream”
Arrived two weeks ago in Košice, after a long journey, they found this accommodation thanks to the Jewish community.
“
We can't do anything but adapt.
We can't stay in the apartment and cry.
You have to work.
Our eldest daughter of 5 and a half years will soon go to school.
Our life before was like a dream, we had a bank loan to buy a house and one day we found ourselves in a nightmare.
I don't know where we find this strength, but we want to redo our lives here
,” says the mother.
Sergei already has a job.
He is a line worker in a cannery and is learning Slovak in evening classes.
“
We did not come here seeking profit, nor a better life, but only security.
We prefer to stay close to the Ukrainian border to return to our country that we love so much.
But we will wait for peace to return
, ”he explains.
Although the family was able to find refuge in Slovakia, its members are still worried because the parents, brothers and sisters remained in Ukraine.
Their concern is shared by many Ukrainians who have left their country, leaving family behind, voluntarily or not.
Yana, a resident of the town of Irpin, on the outskirts of kyiv, fears for her husband's life.
If she was able to leave the country, this is not the case of the latter, obliged to remain in Ukraine within the framework
of the general mobilization decreed by the authorities
.
Do you see what state I am in?
Every morning, I send a message to my husband to find out if he is alive.
It's a relief when he answers.
He stayed in Ukraine, he joined a paramilitary self-defense group in Irpin.
A few days ago, I met some people from my small town.
They showed me pictures, almost all the neighborhoods are destroyed, everything is in ruins
Yana, mother and resident of Irpin
Alexis Bedu
►
To read also: War in Ukraine: the long hours of waiting for refugees at the border with Slovakia
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_EN
Slovakia
Ukraine
Refugees