So she helped the ballet students escape the war

Eugenia Iashchuk's phone is full of messages from panicked children.

When we meet her for the first time, it has been a week since Russia invaded Ukraine and her students ended up in the middle of a burning war. 

- She writes that the bombs fall around her, says Eugenia Iashchuk and shows messages from one of the students. 

"If we die tomorrow, we want you to know that you were a fantastic teacher," it says in another. 

The students go to the ballet school in Kharkiv, the same school that Eugenia herself attended, first as a student and later as a teacher.

Now she works with international dance assignments and has been living in Sweden for some time.   

- But every summer I have returned to Kharkiv to teach the students at the school and meet my parents, says Eugenia Iashchuk.  

The way out is life-threatening

When the war breaks out, she decides to try to help the approximately 1,000 students at the ballet school in Kharkiv escape from the Russian bombs.  

- They have no food, no clean water and no electricity.

It is terrible conditions and the way out of Kharkiv is life threatening, she says.  

With the help of the network of contacts she has built up during her international assignments, she begins to sketch on an escape plan.

Buses, accommodation and volunteers are arranged to take care of the students. 

- We have a list of where all the students are, who to bring and how to pick them up, says Eugenia Iashchuk.  

The need for help is great and several hundred of the students and their relatives sign up for the list.

Already a few days later, the first bus with students is on the border with Poland.  

- No child should have to experience this, says Eugenia Iashchuk.