‘This is war and I can’t get hold of my bride’
Olena Henley could hear explosions while sheltering in an undergound metro station. Now, her UKbased husband tells Virginia Fallon he can’t reach her.
It’s been 45 long minutes since Jon Henley was last able to reach his wife Olena as she shelters in a metro station.
She told him she can hear fire – it could be from explosions or tanks – and she’s frightened. She’s with her elderly mother and her brother as well as hundreds of others told to get below ground as Russian troops invade Ukraine. The power is still on, but they’re not sure for how much longer.
Meanwhile, Henley is spending another sleepless night in the UK as he keeps trying to reach the woman he last saw on Valentines Day.
‘‘She’s beautiful, I love her, I hope she’s alright.’’
Henley, born in New Zealand, says the world needs to know what’s happening to the people like the woman he loves.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, launching a full-scale invasion following sustained pressure from Russian President Vladimir Putin. More than 50,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled their country in less than 48 hours and at least 137 people have been killed. Hundreds are expected to be injured.
Yesterday, Ukranians in New Zealand gathered at Wellington’s civic square to protest the invasion.
Ernest Shatilov lives in Wellington and is married to a New Zealander. Two years ago, the couple left Kharkiv to move back to Wellington. Kharkiv was a peaceful city about 250 kilometres from the fighting when he was there. Now it’s the frontline.
‘‘I just feel very emotional. My mother still lives in Kharkiv. I told her to get out because she’s in an apartment very high up. It’s hard to leave the city. There’s no flights, the roads are blocked, there’s only a few buses.’’
‘‘Thankfully my mother managed to get a train out of Kharkiv. I know there’s rockets and bombs flying everywhere, but I pray that nothing happens to that train’’.
The group was joined by people of other nationalities in solidarity. One man carried a sign saying ‘I am Russian and I am against the war.’
Tetiana Zhurba was among the leaders of the protest. With tears in her eyes, she recounted stories from her homeland.
‘‘We haven’t invaded anyone, we are on the side of peace, truth, freedom’’.
Henley said Russia must be stopped.
‘‘This is real. Kharkiv isn’t a backwards city. It’s a beautiful city with charming intelligent honest people who need help. This is war and I can’t do anything.’’
Olena’s home city is close to the Russia border and this is the second full night she’s spent in the metro. She and her family have food, though water has run out. They have neither a car nor the means to escape.
‘‘There’s snow on the ground. What do you do? Just walk out?’’
Olena has been in almost constant contact until now.
While she and her fellow citizens have lived with concerns at the border for more than eight years, Henley says they weren’t expecting the severity of what’s happened – the world didn’t.
‘‘She’s scared, incredibly frightened like anyone would be, but she’s holding it together.’’
The pair initially met online and then in person in August 2020 after Covid prevented them from getting together sooner.
After a ‘‘fantastic’’ time together in Istanbul, they were again kept apart because of travel restrictions, finally meeting again in 2021.
Last December they married and began the paperwork for Olena to move to the UK. The only thing she was waiting on was the English test scheduled for February 19 but cancelled because of the conflict.
Henley says she wouldn’t leave now anyway, not while her family and country are in such danger.
The metro where Olena is sheltering is about a five-minute walk from her apartment.
People were told they could take what they could carry: Olena’s family have their dog with them.
In a video she’s sent to Henley she says that although people are allowed to return to their homes during the day, many are choosing to remain in the station because they’re so frightened.
‘‘At the moment we can hear some explosions. They are far from here but we can hear them. Stay safe.’’