Valentina’s Family

My son and father and I visited Calabria, Italy last week and spent several days in the seaside village that is Tropea. At a restaurant one evening, the girl who poured our water spoke no Italian and so I asked her where she was from. The answer was Ukraine. And her story was (unfortunately) common yet unforgettable. Her family fled Ukraine and left everything they had with the backdrop of explosions and violence. I asked her to write down her experience (pls read below). She and her family have been offered shelter for the summer with a generous Italian family but don’t know what they will do after that.

“On February 24, we woke up from explosions in Kyiv. We found out that Russia attacked us and the war began. Many of our friends immediately left for western Ukraine. We didn't know what to do. Stay at home in Kyiv, or run somewhere as well. We were very confused, could not believe that this happened to us in the 21st century in Europe! I have three younger sisters: Veronica 14 years old, Vladislava 8 years old and Violetta 7 years old. The younger sisters could not understand for a long time what was happening and why they needed to hide and sit quietly. It was very frustrating. Towards evening, friends of my parents and godparents of my younger sisters Vladislava and Violetta called us and offered us to come to the country house of their comrades. We decided to go. This house was located in the village Bobritsa, in the Kyiv region, about 35 km from Kyiv to the west. In total, 5 families found shelter in this house, many children. On the same day, we learned that Russian troops had landed an airborne assault in Gostomel. This is a suburb of Kyiv, 35 km to the northwest. When we heard the explosions, everyone went down to the basement and sat there. We went down there several times a day and also everyone also slept there on futons. A few days later, Russian troops came from the territory of Belarus, through Chernobyl to the cities of Bucha, Irpen and Gostomel, occupied these cities and planned to go from there to Kyiv. Air raids and explosions began. They didn't shoot at our village, but all the bombs and shells flew through us. The house was shaking, glass was ringing from explosions. The men blocked the windows with sandbags. The city of Irpin, which was occupied along with Buchey and Gostomel is located only 25 km to the north from the house where we were hiding. Fighter planes were flying very low and very noisy above us, and it was difficult to understand if they were ours or not, which caused panic everytime. The number of shellings intensified, and they were approaching in our direction. The news was not comforting. One day, one of the families could not stand it. A mother with two children decided to move on. They packed up and left in the direction of Poland. A couple of days later, our family made the same decision. When we were putting our things in cars, 6 helicopters flew over us, very low. And the helicopters landed right in the field near our village and did not turn off the engines. After some time, they flew in the opposite direction, apparently also landed troops on the edge of the forest. We reported this to the checkpoint and left Bobritsa. We planned to come to Poland. But it was a difficult task. The Zhytomyr highway, which could have been the best and fastest way to get there, was bombed. And besides, many villages in the Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions in the area of this highway were occupied by Russian troops. We first had to go south to the city of Vinnitsa. Stop there and move on. The track was filled with cars just like us, who wanted to leave. Only late in the evening we managed to arrive in Vinnitsa. We stayed there for the night. We were welcomed by a friend of my parents. Early in the morning we left towards the western border and Lvov. Traffic jams on the highway continued all our way. And at the gas stations that worked, there were huge queues. We had to stand in line to refuel for 5 or even 7 hours! In addition, there was a restriction, they filled no more than 20 liters in one car. We arrived in Lvov at almost 2 am, we were received there for the night by a friend of my teacher from school. And my teacher herself was also here, we had to pick her up and transport her across the border to Poland. We spent the night and early in the morning went to the border with Poland to the checkpoint. There was also a long queue. We stood in line all day, only at 11 at night we drove up to the border guards. Then we tried to find accommodation in Poland, but all the hotels were occupied, there were no places anywhere, and we just stayed to sleep in the cars. It was so cold, I felt like I froze to death.

Then we went to Krakow, where we managed to book a hotel room for 3 days. We thought that 3 days would be enough for us to find accommodation for a longer period. But it turned out that this was not the case. We did not find housing and could not extend the room, since someone had already bought it too. Through my father's acquaintances, we met Pavel, who has been living in Italy in the city of Briatico for 10 years. He promised to find us a place to live. So we ended up in Tropea. We were received by a large Italian family, for which we are very grateful and obliged to them”!