© Emeric Fohlen for the JDD
Among the thousands of Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in France, a family from Kiev recounts the pain of exile.
She has to concentrate to remember that she is 41 years old. Alla Sviatkovskaya forgot her age. Four hours earlier, this Friday, this Ukrainian mother arrived in Paris by train from Germany with her husband and their three children aged 6 to 17, following a journey of more than forty-eight hours. « We hesitated, then we chose France», confides this brunette with her hair up in a bun, her face hollowed out with worry and fatigue. As soon as they arrived at Gare de l’Est, the family was taken to the Accueil Ukraine center set up since March 3 by the City of Paris in the 18th arrondissement to centralize the care of refugees.
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It’s just time for things to calm down in Ukraine. We want to go home
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Every day, 400 to 500 Ukrainians, mostly women with children, flock to this hive managed by the France Terre d’Asile association. The center offers them state-funded accommodation and allows them to take the steps to receive papers and temporary protection. More than 2,500 refugees have already been welcomed there. There are many of them this Friday followingnoon waiting for the bus that will take them to their first night in France.
“We have no plans to stay. assures Allah. It’s just time for the children to find a little calm, to be able to go to school. Let it calm down in Ukraine. We want to go home.» His hope? May the conflict not last. « But with the war in the Donbass, it was the same, and eight years later it remained at the stage of hope, so…» She doesn’t finish her sentence.
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Poland, then Germany
A fortnight ago, an eternity, Alla ran a large jeans store in Kiev. Tonight, she doesn’t know where her family will sleep. While her husband takes care of the administrative procedures, her youngest son Timur runs in a corner set up for children between drawings, huts and toys. Arthur, his junior by 10 years, has his eye on a video game. Karina, the 17-year-old eldest, her head tucked into a hood, is bent over her phone with a girlfriend she met on the trip. « I’m scared and I feel very guilty, I feel like I’ve betrayed my country by fleeing», testifies the teenager, who knows « already well the war». His military uncle fought eight years ago. She remembers the « continuous crying» of his grandmother; of his drawings sent to the soldiers.
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I cried the first two days. Since then, anguish and anger once morest the attackers have taken over
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Alla and her children left the Ukrainian capital on February 24, « from the first bombings». His brother took them to the Khmelnytskyi region in the west of the country, where their parents are from. « The next day, it already took two days to leave the city because of traffic jams. 30 kilometers away, just following our passage, a town was bombed.» On the seventh day, she convinced her husband, who remained in Kiev, to join them. Authorized to leave the country as the father of three children, this auto entrepreneur ended up hitting the road on March 7. Two days later, the reunited family took the train to Lviv and then buses to Krakow, Poland, and then to Germany.
Alla talk regarding « Putin’s madness», why « perverse desire of the Russians to want to take [ce] territory for years» and some « weakness» former presidents of his country. « In Ukraine, we say that we never know where the soul is in the body, but we know what it feels like when we suffer, Alla says, apologizing for her tears. I live continuously with this pain which prevents me from breathing. I wake up with my heart racing, with fear. » His daughter Karina thinks back to this boy from « 18 or 20 years old» encountered on the road to exile, who « may have to go to war». « I cried the first two days, she says. Since then, anguish and anger once morest the attackers have taken over. »