War in Ukraine: Barely arrived, Liliia and Uliana are already dreaming of the day when they can “go home… – 20 Minutes

This Wednesday afternoon, Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to French parliamentarians, calling for a boycott of the Russian market or even support for arming his people who are fighting for freedom. 3,000 kilometers from kyiv, in the town of Bessières, north of Toulouse, Liliia watches the speech of its president, “a national hero”, on a continuous news channel. This young 31-year-old Ukrainian and her daughter eight-year-old Uliana arrived just a few hours earlier with their hosts, Emmanuel and Karine. With ten other women and 21 children, she made a long journey across Europe in a bus chartered by the city of Haute-Garonne, with the mayor on board, but also volunteers and Oléna, a native resident. Ukrainian. “They left a whole life” A trip prepared with the authorities of Vinnytsia “who organized the extraction of these families to the Romanian border”, says the city councilor, Cédric Maurel, who did not hesitate when it came to helping these refugees. “Most of these women left with the equivalent of a backpack, they left a whole life”, confides the mayor who coordinated the care of these women and children by families of Bessières. Emmanuel him also was on the trip. He discovered a young 15-year-old girl on the bus, who had just lost her father, killed in the fighting, with her only family by her side, her 21-year-old sister. Some had not had enough to eat and slept in a real bed for a long time. For this son of Spanish refugees, welcoming Liliia and Uliana into his home was a matter of course. “We had room, we could do it”, simply assures this municipal employee who exchanges with the young woman thanks to a few words of English and an essential translation application. Four months pregnant, she left everything: her husband, her parents, her life in Vinnytsia where she was an accountant. She would never have thought of leaving. “But there were explosions, we lived in hiding, there were up to ten alerts a day, it was scary. My husband asked me from day one to leave the country so that our child would not see the war,” she explains as her phone beeps constantly to the rhythm of news from Ukraine, images of destruction of the cities of his country, of the terrible count of children killed since the Russian attack. Attending classes, integration into associations at the last moment she did not reveal to her granddaughter that they were going to leave their country for France, far from the front. Uliana’s beautiful blue eyes are sad, but the presence of Néo and Naël, Karine’s children, gives her a little smile. Everyone will also be able to find the other families who have arrived at their side. A discussion thread on WhatsApp has already been created and the town hall is providing them with a room so that they can meet. “We are going to make sure that everyone has French lessons. Thanks to a system with the city of Vinnytsia, the students will continue to follow the lessons by video and will thus be able to validate their course, the youngest will be integrated into French schools, ”explains Cédric Maurel. Sports associations have already offered to integrate families into their activities and an association, Solid’Ukraine 2022, has been created to help them. Liliia is already “grateful, for the help and support”, provided by all the volunteers. But also towards Europe “for its protective equipment and its weapons”. “If, with others, she had not supported us, our country might no longer exist. Our army will be fine on land. But our skies are open, this is a great danger that Ukraine is struggling to face alone. And then we have to set up at least one humanitarian corridor for the safe evacuation of people,” says the young mother, whose fatigue can be read on her face. “The Ukrainian population is more united than ever” If she hadn’t voted for Zelensky, today she is behind the comedian turned warlord “100%”. And she believes in her country’s military. “The Ukrainian population is more united than ever, everyone helps as much as they can. The women weave camouflage nets, many men joined the army on the first day, they queued in front of the military enlistment offices for days,” she says. This trip to France is far of the one she had once imagined. The war rushed her on the roads of Europe, among strangers. Karine and Emmanuel will do everything to make her feel at home. Liliia hopes to make friends and learn French. “For the first time since the beginning of the war, I am safe. But as soon as our country is calm, we dream of returning home”.