A welcome respite from days in hell. What Anastasia Aleinikova remembers from her last moments at home in Odessa, Ukraine, is the sound from heaven. It specifies, much louder than fireworks. In Ukraine, on February 24, it is the beginning of the war.
“We heard explosions at 5amrecalls Anastasia. That day, we took my mother and my husband’s mother home. We thought of sending them to the countryside, 600 km from Odessa. But during the day we learned that all the cities to go there were attacked.”
Go or stay?
The dilemma then imposes itself on her: Stay or leave. A little over a week ago, for her and her children, she finally decided to leave her country. The decision was extremely difficult to make, explains Anastasia today. To welcome him, his sister Inna who runs a restaurant of Russian specialties in Rouen. In Anastasia’s luggage are her mother and two of her children.
Her husband and one of her sons stayed in Ukraine to fight. “We talk to each other every daysays Anastasia. We follow the news and as soon as we see that in Odessa there is a siren and everyone has to hide in a shelter we write asking: “What is happening at your place? What do you mean? »
This concern, his 16-year-old daughter shares it. Since the start of the war, her entire teenage world has crumbled. She left all her friends there. “A week before this all started, we were still trying on my graduation party dress.explains the young high school student. I didn’t like going to high school but now I understand it was a blessed time. I hope he will come back one day. “
And they insist: as soon as it is possible, they are only waiting for one thing: to return home.
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