Anguish as war forces Ukrainian families to spend Christmas apart

With Russia’s struggle nonetheless raging, numerous Ukrainian households are dealing with the ache of spending this festive interval aside. 

That’s notably the case for the thousands and thousands of Ukrainians who’ve fled their homeland this yr and left behind family members. 

Anna Polukhina, a 37-year-old from Mariupol, is one among them.

Residing at a refugee centre in Milan, she informed Euronews it’s troublesome to have a good time Christmas when her household again house resides in a struggle zone. She mentioned her mom’s home had been destroyed within the battle. 

“Household is one thing that is crucial,” she mentioned. “It is all the pieces. However the struggle modified all the pieces. I’ll not have an opportunity to talk to household and all my kin there,” she mentioned, including that it is arduous to achieve them in Mariupol, which is occupied by Russian forces.

“It’s extremely troublesome. I need to hear my mom, to talk to her,” she added. 

The refugee centre is doing its finest to raise her spirits. They are going to have a particular festive celebration and Polukhina will make conventional Ukrainian dishes along with her flatmates.

“They’ve put up two Christmas timber… it is actually stunning,” she mentioned. “There could also be surprises for us, for the youngsters. They’ve written letters to Santa Claus, perhaps there will be presents for all of us.”

Elizabeth Pulvas, a Ukrainian refugee in Bucharest, is in an analogous place to Anna. This may also be the primary yr the 23-year-old Ukrainian will not be capable to spend Christmas along with her household, who’re in Kyiv.

“It’s fairly arduous to grasp that there is no such thing as a risk for all of us to unite in a single place,” mentioned Pulvas.

For the vacations final yr, she had an enormous Christmas dinner in January along with her buddies the place she cooked 12 dishes to have a good time the vacation. Fewer than two months later, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, forcing Elizabeth to flee to Romania. 

“Everybody was telling me, Oh, you are loopy. Why are you cooking all these dishes? I believed, no, I need to do that,” she mentioned, including that now they admire the celebrations that they had a yr in the past.

Celebrating in a struggle zone

“The primary factor shouldn’t be that I’m not with my household, it’s that there are lots of people who will have a good time this vacation in a struggle zone,” Elizabeth mentioned.

She thinks about her 87-year-old grandmother who has handled blackouts because of Russian missile strikes.

“No water, no warmth for an 87-year-old girl is an enormous catastrophe. And never one among them may have an actual Christmas,” she mentioned.

“(In Ukraine) they don’t have any Christmas temper, although the federal government is making an attempt to do not less than one thing, to carry up the temper for folks,” she added.

In a number of cities throughout Ukraine, there are festive decorations to attempt to assist increase spirits amid the struggle.

In Kharkiv, a Christmas tree was put up in an underground metro station, whereas in Kyiv, the mayor mentioned Russians wouldn’t steal Christmas.

A big menorah additionally was displayed for Hannukah this yr within the centre of Kyiv, with lights on it shining in a metropolis that has suffered from blackouts as a result of Russian assaults on infrastructure.

“My household and buddies in Ukraine say that for Christmas, they do not need a lot, simply if there is no such thing as a bombing, it could be nice. If there’s electrical energy and heating, it could be the very best present for them,” mentioned 28-year-old Diana Dymytrova, who’s from the Ukrainian area of Odesa.

She left Ukraine by herself and now lives in France and says it is troublesome since she worries quite a bit about her household.

Attempting to benefit from the vacations

Yuliia Matalinets, a 32-year-old Ukrainian from Odesa, who left the nation two months in the past, mentioned she was wanting ahead to celebrating along with her host household in the UK.

“It is my very first time celebrating Christmas, sadly, distant from my household, however fortuitously with superb folks,” mentioned Yuliia.

“I’m distant from house and clearly miss my household, however I really feel like perhaps it is too early to say, however I discovered some form of my second household,” she mentioned.

Yuliia mentioned she was wanting ahead to studying the UK’s festive traditions after which celebrating on 7 January, which is when Ukrainians historically mark Christmas. 

She additionally hopes that she’ll be capable to have a video name along with her dad and mom however says typically it is troublesome as a result of blackouts.