‘IF THEY’RE NOT STOPPED, EUROPE WILL BE NEXT’
ACCORDING to the United Nations, more than one million people have already fled Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion. Refugees are crossing the borders into neighbouring countries such as Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Moldova – but also to Russia and Belarus. On Wednesday, the UN said 1,002,860 people had entered these countries from Ukraine.
As harrowing scenes from the wartorn country are broadcast around the world, there are plenty of people looking on in Wales for whom the devastating situation is fraught with extra anxiety and fear – those with family members still in Ukraine, or who have family fleeing the country and trying to return to Wales.
Allison Hrydynskyy, 55, has been married to her husband Mykola for 20 years.
They have lived in Abergavenny for the past four years, with Mykola, 40, owning a small business near Brecon.
Their family in Ukraine has fled to Poland, but Allison says the process to get the family to Wales is proving frustrating.
“They’ve lived in their house for 50 years. They’ve built it from scratch and they just had to walk away the other evening with my seven-yearold nephew.”
Allison’s sister-in-law, Halya, her son Dima, aged seven, and Halya’s mother Irena have fled Mostyska in Ukraine.
They are currently staying with friends in Przemysl, a town just over the border in Poland.
“In their town, they caught some Russian uniformed soldiers and they were marking buildings because there’s an army base in that town,” Allison said.
“They caught them and asked what they were doing and they said they were being marked for future bombings, so my family just left.”
Allison said marks had appeared on a block of flats, used by soldiers in the town, and a military office, which is not far from her nephew’s school and family home.
“I have messaged Mark Drakeford, I’ve tried to tweet Boris Johnson. I got hold of David Davies in the end,” Allison said.
“He’s been absolutely fantastic. He came out of whatever he was doing and called me.”
The situation led to a worrying wait at the end of last week, as the rules were extended for members of extended families but with the change not coming into force until last Friday.
Speaking ahead of the change, Allison said: “The telephones say that they are open 24 hours a day but they’re not – when you ring them, they say ‘Sorry the office is closed.’
“I’m absolutely beside myself. I don’t want to let them down, but there’s nothing I can do until [Friday].”
The Welsh Government has said that it stands in support of the Ukrainian people.
Under the UK Government, extended family members can apply to the Ukraine Family Scheme as of last Friday.
You can apply for a family migration visa if you are an immediate family member of a British national who usually lives in Ukraine.
Allison says she is “relieved” her family is out of the country, but that her nephew is afraid of the aircraft flying over the town.
“There’s lots of planes and helicopters at the border town, and that’s traumatising him – all the aeroplanes and things – he’s scared.
“He wouldn’t even go upstairs in the house that he’s staying in because he’s closer to the sky.
“We’re absolutely relieved they’re out, but that’s only the first stage of it.”
Allison added some family members remain in Ukraine.
Mykola’s uncle, also 40, was in Germany working when the invasion began and his wife and six children, who range from a baby to 12 years old, remain in the country.
“They can’t go to the border and stand in that queue, with all those children. It’s so cold over there. They can’t get out,” Allison said.
She added that there is hope a charity will be sending a minibus to their town in Ukraine to get them out of the country.
“She’s on her own. She can’t get six kids through the border,” she said.
Allison says her family are “crying constantly” and her nephew is “petrified”.
“I just wish the politicians would stop saying, ‘ We welcome everybody with open arms.’ Really? You try and get through the process,” she said.
A Home Office spokesperson said it had been working at pace to launch the Ukraine Family Scheme, which was initially open for immediate family members to apply, and which was opened to extended family members.
As well as immediate family members, British nationals and people of any nationality settled in the UK will now be supported to bring parents, grandparents, adult children, siblings, and their immediate family members to the UK.
There will be no requirements for salary or language tests but people will need to pass security checks. The Home Office said checks are a fundamental part of our visa approval process and will continue, as they did for the evacuation of Afghanistan, to keep the UK safe.
The Home Office also said that it will introduce a new visa for
Ukrainians with no ties to the UK to come here.
An uncapped sponsored humanitarian visa route will allow sponsors, such as communities, private sponsors or local authorities, to bring people to the UK for an initial 12 months.
They will be able to work and the sponsor would provide housing and integration support.
When applicants have completed an online form, they can then book an appointment at any
Visa Application Centre throughout Europe.
They should then attend their Visa Application Centre appointment, where they will be required to submit their biometric information.
Once the visa application has been processed, applicants will be contacted.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We are in close contact with the UK Government and the Home Office to understand how its proposed schemes will operate and how Wales can support people in Ukraine fleeing the conflict.
“The First Minister has written to the Prime Minister urging the UK Government to make it easier for people in Ukraine to seek sanctuary in the UK at this time of war.
“We continue to make preparations to accept people fleeing the conflict and to ensure support is readily available in Wales.
“We have set up a dedicated webpage setting out how people can help and sources of support for people directly affected by the war in Ukraine.”
Svetlana Lilley, 55, is a textile artist who lives and works in Briton Ferry with her husband and 17-year-old son.
She has family in the Khmelnickiy area of Ukraine, about a twohour drive from Kyiv, including her mum, her nephew and his wife, and friends.
“I married a man from Wales – he’s a Cornishman but has lived in Wales for many years and considers himself Welsh,” Svetlana said.
The couple have been living together in Wales for 18 years.
“I’m absolutely disgraced of Russia’s actions,” she told us.
“My mum is Russian but she lives in Ukraine, and she’s truly a Ukrainian person [at heart], and she couldn’t believe that Russia could do such a thing to its own people.
“How can they say they are protecting Russians if they are bombing Russian people who live in Ukraine?
“It’s not just pure Ukrainian in Ukraine, it’s all nationalities. None of them are pure Russian or pure Ukrainian – not any more – so they are killing their own people by doing that.”
Svetlana says she feels “hopeless” that she cannot help.
“I feel very, very anxious because most of my friends, relatives, live in different places in Ukraine,” she said.
Svetlana’s husband worked at Chernobl for many years, and she has friends in the area.
“Now, the power station is taken and people have been taken as hostages,” she said.
It’s affecting my family, it’s affecting me, even here.”
Svetlana says she worries about her friends and relatives who are still living in Ukraine.
“I go to bed and wake up and hope they are still alive.”
She says she chats to friends who have relatives in Ukraine every morning to ensure their relatives are safe.
“We’re all scared for them,” she said.
Svetlana has been able to speak to her nephew in Ukraine, who told her that her mother is baking bread as she has been unable to buy any from the shops.
“My biggest fear is that if the internet is down, I won’t be able to talk to them and I won’t be able to know what is happening to them.”
Svetlana said one of her relatives is considering sending his wife out of the country. Ukraine’s president has ordered a general military mobilisation and has banned men aged 18 to 60 from leaving. However, women and children are still able to leave.
“Poland is doing an amazing job, and we’re not far away from Poland so he is considering sending his wife and sister abroad. Some of his friends, young men, have sent their wives and children abroad to try to escape,” she said.
Svetlana’s sister was abroad at the time, and she says she doesn’t know how she will get back.
“Her little daughter, 10 years old, stayed with my mum and dad, so she’s asking my mum and dad if maybe they can fly to Poland and meet there together.
“Poland is taking children without documents, so it would be possible for them to go to Poland and meet with my sister, if she can make it to Poland.”
Svetlana says it is difficult for those who have left Ukraine to come back into the country, and it’s difficult for those who want to leave the country to do so.
“It’s hard to describe what’s going on there. There’s quite a bit of panic. People are scared, nobody knows what’s happening. Everybody goes to bed and says, ‘We hope we wake up in Ukraine,’” she said.
“If we speak up, if we stand up, if we put something visible and raise up our voices and tell governments ‘It’s got to be stopped.’”
Svetlana lived in Moscow for six years before war began in Georgia in 2008.
“I understand how people feel in Ukraine. It’s scary when you wake up in the night and you don’t know where the bombs are.
“Your windows are shaking, it’s scary. I know how it feels,” she said.
“The war started in Georgia and I said, ‘It’s going to be Ukraine next,’ because I can feel aggression in Russia in politics. They want Ukraine as well.
“I’m pretty sure if they’re not stopped now, Europe are going to be next. If you do not protect Ukraine today, you’re going to have it on your doorstep tomorrow.
“People have to understand how horrible this man is. He had no morals, he has no heart, he would walk on the rubble of your city and he wouldn’t care.
“People have to understand, and people have to speak up now, because if he takes Ukraine, there’s nothing going to stop him after.”