‘THE SOUNDS OF SIRENS HAVE AFFECTED US PSYCHOLOGICALLY’
TURKISH Cypriot Oktay Kin and Ukrainian partner Khrystyne Mosesova are among the millions who have fled from Ukraine. They spoke about their experiences to the Cyprus Turkish News Agency.
Mr Kin, who founded a computer programming company in the Ukrainian city of Lviv in December 2021, three months before the war, said he is waiting for the events to end so he can return.
Speaking about his experiences in Ukraine after the war started and his return to the TRNC, Mr Kin said that the “sound of sirens in particular” affected him and his partner “psychologically”.
He said he first went to Lviv to work in 2019 and returned to the TRNC after nine months, and then went back again in December 2021 with the intention of relocating there permanently.
He said that he felt “at ease” at the start of the war because Lviv is on the border with Poland but his stress levels increased “day by day”.
Mr Kin explained the changes to daily life: “On the day the war started, it was forbidden to turn lights on in the house after 10pm. The whole city would be in darkness after 10pm. They had warned the public that there might be internet or power outages but that never happened, we didn’t have any problems with either.
“We went to the market and filled our baskets with pasta, meat and other foods. At the checkout they said we couldn’t buy them. They said, ‘take what you need and come back tomorrow’. So there was no atmosphere of panic.
“A daily cash withdrawal limit of only 5,000 Ukrainian hryvnia (2,500TL, £130) from cash machines has been imposed. There was no such thing in the past. This did cause some problems as it created lines hundreds of metres long at cash machines.
“They shut down all sectors in the entire country, only markets and pharmacies remained open.”
Mr Kin said that while the Ukrainian army was providing protection outside of Lviv, local units of “armed and trained men” were formed inside the city in every neighbourhood.
“When the war broke out, their perspectives on foreigners changed,” Mr Kin continued.
“They started looking around for Russian agents. On the way to the market, a man in plain clothes was stopping people and asking for [their] passports. This caused some stress.
“Meals were cooked for the Ukrainian army and hundreds of metres of tables were set up in the city. The mayor was overseeing clothes that were sewn for the army and Molotov cocktails that were made . . . So we started to feel the war.”
‘THERE WAS ALSO A LOT OF MISINFORMATION’
Explaining that sirens would detect when a missile might be fired somewhere and sounded across the country, Mr Kin said: “There are shelters under every apartment in
Ukraine. I have a shelter, like a room, under my apartment. Sirens sounded three or four times a night.
“It seriously affects you psychologically. The apartment is already dark at night. . . You try to go downstairs using the light on your phone, your internet is down and your phone has no reception. Sometimes I could feel my blood pressure rising.”
Mr Kin said that all of his company’s staff had left Ukraine before him but that he did not want to leave the country because his “life is there” so he stayed on for a while.
He started to change his mind when he saw that “things were getting serious” and left Lviv on March 1, the sixth day of the war.
Mr Kin described an incident he experienced on the fourth day of the war, which he cited as one of the reasons for leaving the country: “[It was a] Sunday, I woke up at midnight and went to the kitchen. I only turned on the light of the cooker hood. When I looked out the window, I saw some people walking in the street with flashlights so I immediately turned off the light.
“I noticed that they were in military uniforms. I said, ‘My God, I think they [the Russians] are here’. Then I saw the Ukrainian flag on [their] arms and I was a little relieved.
“During those days, we heard news that [Russian] soldiers had parachuted down 40km outside of Lviv. There was also a lot of misinformation.”
Noting that his family kept calling him and insisting that he return to the TRNC, Mr Kin said that he found Erhan Karakaş, who is also a Turkish Cypriot, and eventually left Ukraine.
‘MY PARENTS WANTED ME TO TAKE THE CHILDREN AND GO’
Ms Mosesova, who is from Lviv, left Ukraine with her mother, fiveyear-old daughter and her sister’s four-year-old son. She said her father and older sister were left behind.
Emphasising that she left Ukraine for the safety of the children, Ms Mosesova expressed that she feels “guilty” because she is now safe in the TRNC and cannot support her country.
Ms Mosesova said she left for Poland with her mother, daughter and nephew, 10 days after Mr Kin. Underlining that she did not want to leave Ukraine, she added: “My family wanted me to take the children and go.”
Explaining that they stayed in Poland for a few weeks, where they felt “very relaxed”, Ms Mosesova said they then decided to come to North Cyprus with Mr Kin after thinking that “Poland may not be very safe either”.